Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-12
The Decay of Literature.

About thirty years ago there were novel,
 ists of the first rank writers such that the announcement of a publication by them sent thrill through every corner not inac-
 cessible to circulating libraries. In the peri cd from twenty to forty years removed from
 us, we had been startled by the new power 1 revealed, though not for the first time, in ''Vanity Fair,' and had eagerly accepted ''Pendennis' and the 'Newcomes" and ''Es- l mond" A foolish controversy, still some
 times continued, was raging to the rival
 merits of their author and the contemporary 1 author of ''Pickwick'' and ''David Copper field" Wiser persons enjoyed both, and there were few months in which one did not
 greet with delight the appearance of a num- l Der of one serial in the familiar yellow, and
 another in the equally familiar green. Then
 the whole literary world had just been thrown
 into an excitement, never since paralleled, by
 the sudden apparition of 'Jane Eyre" A
 greater writer was making a more gradual
 approach to fame by the publication of the
 "Scenes of Clerical Life" And besides
 Thackeray, Dickens, Miss Bronte, and George Eliot, a humber of writers, some happily still living, provided agreeable enter tainment in the intervals, and might be re- garded at least worthy subordinates. Lord Lytton--to mention only the dead-was publishing My Novel" and ''The Caxtons," which are at least excellent specimens of good literary craftsmanship, Mrs. Gaskell pro duced ''Ruth' and Mary Barton," and hlASHley WrOto ''AlCOn IOCk6' ana tia" and Westward Ho !' books which, if they will not bear the closest inspection in all respects, show at least vigor and origi- nality for which 1t would be hard to produce later parallel. It is rather dangerous, per haps, to ask whether we have such novelists now. But, allowing every reader to select his favorite pair of favorites to be worthy champions of the moderns, he will find it
 hard to fill up list capable of doing battle
 against their predecessors Have we any counterbalancing considerations to suggest
 Is there any department of literature in which we can claim prepondersnce as dis | tinct predecessors in this direction | In poetry, philosophy, fiction, seem to | have the worst of 1t. There is yet one di-
 rection in which we might make q stand. i History should be strong point for in his
 tory we approaching the scientific field;
 and in history nobody can doubt that we have made in some respects enormous advan- | ces. The Anglo Saxon and Charlemagne
 havo been nearly abolished, and that is un-
 deratood to mean that we have made great ] advance in accuracy of research But from | the literary point of view, it may be doubted
 whether we could meet without misgiving
 such champion as Macaulay. The differ
 euce is significant It is easy to point out 1 Macaulay's glnring defects theli imitation of his political views the offensive glitter of
 his style and, in that respect, at least one
 living historian seems to be justly his superi-
 or. Yet, when we read the "Essays'' and l
 confident. The extraordinary fullness of 1 knowledge, the command of material, the
 power of grouping events and forming them
 into clear and flowing narrative are so un-
 deniable that inclined to admit, in
 spite of his faults, that he is unapproached
 by his successors in the power which goes to
 a monumental work Modern writers seem l tc be sometimes the victims of an indigss- ion caught the S;ata paper office; some
 times they are tempted to tack together R 1 series cf brilliant pamphlets a:i1 trust to
 fvTtune to make it history. At present
 they seem scarcely capable of turning out
 work massive, so finely executed, and marked by such unity of design as their fore fathers. And yet we may admit that, in his | tory at least we have the advantage of a se-
 rious and energetic body of students really
 achieving good work and at least accumula-
 ting the material of literary triumphs. Casting rapid glance over tEese facts the , i conclusion seeins to be inevitable. Tte lite rary like tho natural, harvest has been of late blghted and scanty. We have passed from land flowing with milk and honey
 into comparative desert. As Johnson said when we went from England to Scotland we see the flower dying away to tho stalk. In Q utilitarian and scientific sense we may De making progress in the regions of imagina.
 tion and nrtstc achievement-so far, al
 least, as literature is corcerned--we have
 been progressing backward. Great names are scarce; there Is hardly leader left who r can stir the enthusiasm of the young and make us feel that the torcI of intellectual
 light is being delivered into worthy hands. / If we would not fatter the time, must we not confess that we are at least crossing 6 barren zone and at present without any dis v tinct glimpse of a fertile region beyond?