Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-09-28
MEN OF LETTERS
who will Compare Fayorably with the
Rest OF ANY other Period in En-
Elfsh History.
Nev York Times

New York Times. !.
| There Is nothing more marked in present
literature than the number of men who are
coming into prominence and The quality of
the work which they are doing. They are
not poets, not critics, not art-writers, no.
students of~social or exact science alone, an Y
more than they are anything else; but every
week there is 4 notable book or article on the
other side of the water, and for the most part
it is the production OF men who range ali the
way from fifty down TO twenty-five years OF
age. New men who are doing 6rst-class work
have been brought forward in the great
monthly reviews, or they have ventured into
print as boys learn to swim, by max
| ing ventures in their own names, and
English literature is crowded with produc-
tions which would have made their authors
| famous at any time during the last century,
and are making them famous now. Take
Algernon Swinburne and Alfred Austin in
| poetry; take Austin Dobson and Arthur
OShaug messy In poetry of lighter kind;
take Addington Symonds Edmund Gosse
and Andrew Lang, each representative OF
distinct type of poetical effort, and each ex-
ceiling in his own way. Take, again, the srt
i critics Francis Turner Palgrave, Frederick
| Wedmore, Sidney Colvin, Comyns Carr, E. J.
| Poynter. and Walter III. Paten, each without
| following the other acquiring an individual
! ity of his own and emphasizing compre-
hensive school, and William Morris out
reaching them all as practical worker in
aesthetics and as artist in verse. Take,
| again, the versatile field of literary criti-
| cism, and you find that Matthew Arnold
| is not the only English critic 10 whom
we yield obedience to-day. MIR. Arnold has
| done and is doing notable work. Prof
David Mason has work IN some respects
equally as good; but there is a younger
class OF critics in the field who are taking
the laurels from their elders and transferring
them to their own brows. Recently J. Char
ton Collins has stepped forward into the
trent rank OF modern essayists; George
Saintsbury has none himself credit in nu-
merous monographs OF literary study; F. w.
H. Myers has made Wordsworth live anew
in the literature of the hour; w. J. Court
hope is proving himself a competent sue
cessor OF Edwin as the editor OF Pope; Henry
G. Hewlett is already a prominent critical
writer; John Morley is not beyond the age |
when he can be called young man, and he |
is already one Of our most prolific writers;
W. Z. Henley appears to advantage |
10 Yards English Poets as one of a |
score of the best critics now writing |
in the English Language, who have impaired |
a peculiarly fine favor to that remarkably |
well edited work; and all these are men who
were scarcely heard of ten years ago, and |
whose training has chiefly been acquired in
the great critical reviews.
Take the field Of philosophy, and you fud
the late T. III. Green thinking out new
basis for moral philosophy on the facts of
human nature; Henry Sidgwick pursuing
similar studies at the University of Cam
bridge; Edward Card thinking through the
method of Kant and expounding him TO the
Epglish world; Will am Wallace writing an
original treatise on "Epicureanism;" A. c.
Bradley treading in Prof. Green's steps as
the competent editor of his essays; Groom
Robertson gathering up the speculative
forces oil British thought in the
Mind; James Knowles guiding the
most advanced discsssions in subjects of
the hour. and Norman Lockyer max
ing Nature the channel OF the best scientific
thought of our own time. Then in theology,
while there are, perhaps, no such stalwart
ecclesiastics as the late DIR. Pussy or Fred
erick Maurice, John r. Sseley stands at the
head of the Broad Church school of social |
Christianity as truly IS DR.. Liddon stands
out as the theological head OF the High
Church party, and, between the two, men like
Testament Text the Rev. III. S. Holland,
and Canon Knox Little are coming forward
in the English Church 10 speak the ripest
religious thought of the English people.
This list is by no means complete, but it is
sufficient to indicate that, perhaps never
before, the most cultivated minds in
England are directing their energies TO the
highest subjects of critical study and 10 the
largest conceptions of creative work. There
is very little in current English literature
that is commonplace. There is genius from
one dip of the horizon 10 its opposite There
Is wonderful activity in every quarter.
Speculation is astir; the poets are awake at
early eock-crowingi the critics are not bella
ted; the divines have their eyes set toward
the morning of the worlds destiny, and all
are anxious to prove themselves the masters
each OF his own field. This many sided lit
eraiure is both rich in quality and vast in
quantity.
FIoyd's Ladies' Restaurant.
Oysters as you like them. Good coffee
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