New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-04-24

the world was on Ito knees to him. We present The
spectacle Of o good many writer's doing wen enough
| without knowing how or Why We have, or think
that we have no occasion for Quintilian, Lon
ginus, or Horace. There is no longer any Ays
Poeto. The man who should trouble himself To
write, as Pope did, al Essay on Criticism" would
be laughed at by the booksellers if he should bring
them his Ms. for publication Whether IL be vice.
q merit or foible, we have carried catholicity to
the point Of Indifference. Nobody seems to caro-
much whether book be critically good or bad.
Criticism, socaled sof consequence only far a IL
may promote sale and therefore the book-merchants
think naturally that it should take favorable turn
When book Is badly mangled by reviewer; when
be disnisses it CONTEMPORARY; when he maintains
dead silence concerning it. we begin TO ask curl
ously what his motive must be, and take II for
granted that 1t must be mean one rs he ILL
naturedp we AJAX; or has he written upon the
same subject himself n and we make sure that In
spite Of all proestations Of judicial magnanmity,
this censor has no great horror of selfshness, Of
jealousy, or, maybe, Of vanity. More than half our
literary judgments are of worthless sort, no matter
whether they approve or condemn-mere fopperies,
pretensions, assumptions airs. Why they some
times give pain TO modest and deserving men / do
not know but suppose 1t is because one is always
a little hurt 70 be misunderstood msrepresented.
Besides it Injuries business, when the pen L. the win
ner Of bread, to have ones goods decried In tho
market But why should the critics take any heed
Of 20 insignificant o matter as thati What business
has a writer of books to be poori Bah! let him 60
build, or dig, or keep shop-do anything but mako
books which these tremendous fellows, the critics,
will condemn after prolonged examination Of five
minutes or of ten
Mr.. Willis once admitted half iestingly ] sup-
pose, that he had been very severe upon book be.
cause the wind happened TO be in the east. Pope
says that there constituted that they are
always in a state of intellectual dyspepsia, and
nothing can digest" Again. there are other critics
who have an entirely prudent distrust of q new man
in literature. Those who already distinguished
and do not need TO DO advertised TO the world are
TO be the great favortes of particular class Of
reviewers. These echo the last opinion, and praise
at morning what they blame at night" Moreover,
n writer under the veil of the anonymous can be
guilty of dozen crimes against decency, veracity,
friendship, urbanity; may say what he pleases
10 say without being brought to account. And so,
what with personal gTudges aud politics, careless
ness and incidence, stupidity and ignorance, SELF
conceit and pretenson, critic called TO his Office
by no authority and kept in it by no peculiar fit
ness may abuse tho liberty of the press poison the
public ear, and mislead the commonwealth Of read
ers into a neglect or condemnation of real merit,
for a time at least if not forever. 1t is easy
for men who never had a philosophical idea
in their lives, to talk of taking things phi
losophically and there is sharp saying by
Bentley that q man was never written down by
anybody but himself" But believe that there is
some truth in the old story that harsh criticism,
for instance did something toward killing John
Keats though IL has been, Of late years strenuousy
~ = I. 4. -. t.. -
Of encouragement and opportunity; and that 1t Is
not 80 well remembered il should be that young
writer at least usually stands alone with nothing
but merit for his recommendation. Opportunity is
all that is needed and the favor which Fortune
refuses to grant. We all know those y DO draw the
prizes only grubbcrs in literary dust heaps know
of the deserving who only got the blanks. Noton-
ETY. comes of knack and some worthy men never get
on God does not give everything 70 every man, and
in His economy the qualities which deserve enco-
MUM are often left TO be their own exceeding
great reward