Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-08
LITERATURE AND PATRIOTISM


authors of ones own country to uphold
them to collect and preserve them and
to build up with such collections literary
history which, however, may be in many
important respects Fictitious. And it is
because Patriotism, when operating in this
way, is commonly unguided by taste and
Judgment, and uninfiuenced by facts, that
we possess so many strange compilations
calling themselves histories of literature,
and which present to the bewildered eye
of the intelligent student long lists of
writers whose works never attracted any
attention, and whose names, never known
beyond narrow region, have long since
been consigned to deserved forgetfulness.
1t often happens that the contemporary
authors of particular country are not
relished by their compatriots, who prefer
foreign literature. Thus it may be that
there is dearth of American authors of
eminence during given period, and that
the American public read English,
French, and German literature almost
to the exclusion of their own. But
the American literary historian cannot
recognize so deplorable o condition of
things He thinks himself under obliga-
tions to keep up the succession of native
authors. The consequence is that he
loan 0f
Justly obscure authors, whose names even
often puzzle the student who has found
cut for himself how little they had to do
with the maintenance of the national reputa-
tion. This kind of false representation, for
it really amounts to that. arises from a
provincial sentiment of shame. The liter
airy historian cannot endure thai his
country should be supposed to have been
barren of literary glory at any time. And
so, whether we have literary history or
not, it is thought necessary to manufacture
one. Whoever has read Professor Tyler's
very able and interesting "History of
American Literature" at present only
carried to the beginnings Of what may
properly be called the national life, must
have been struck with the evident strain
which the exceeding thinness and poverty
of the materials puts upon the author.
In giving specimens of the earlier Ameri-
can authors he is obliged to describe
and quote from number of insig-
nificant writers, who, enc feels,
would never have been disturbed in their
obscurity had any really great authors
been available. But we have in this an
illustration Of the French proverb which
says that Gin the country of the Blind,
the One-eyed man is King" If we ex-
anime the literary history of England we
find similar disposition to preserve that
which in many cases is not worth preserv-
ing. The name of Shakespeare and the
glamor of the Eizabethan Age have been
apologies for the embalming of a great
mass of very sorry stuff Shakespeare's
contemporaries were, with one or two ex.
ceptions, wretohed scribblers at best, but
because of the reputation of the era it is
thought necessary to treat all this rubbish
as though it were precious.
In fact, the influence of Patriotism on
Literature is mischievous. 1t operates as
an undiscriminating admiration which
classi6es productions in the most fantastic
and irrational way, and which, while it
tends to the numbering of our library
shelves with much worthless trash.
can by no means have any influence
in protecting from decay the really
authors. For these latter need
no adventurous aids. That principle OF
Survival of the Fittest which modern ply
steal science illustrates and teaches, OBJ.
tains to the fullest extent in Literature.
There is no such thing applicable to that as
Protection. The human mind, freed at
last from the shackies of superstition,
chooses it's authors with sole regard to
their capacity to please. We do not say
their merit, because at bottom these are
one and the same, so far as the reader is
concerned. But the public take what they
prefer in Literature, and they do not read
books merely because he is
fellow countryman. The worlds most
popular writers often find larger audiences
abroad than at home. Chas. Dickens sold
better in the United States than at home.
Mr.. Longfellow outsold any English poet
in England. Patriotism then does not
affect the real standing of authors. 1t is
only in the subsequent attempt to classify
and arrange the literary history OF a coun-
try that it has tendency to warp and dis
tort the facts. and to create lofty pc.
destals for writers who deserved no
such elevation. But so strong is this
tendency towards fictitious literary history
that it could almost be wished that
such history should be written always by
foreigners only that foreigners as rule
seem incapable of grasping the real spirit
of an alien literature. A very curious
and striking illustration OF this is given in
Taine's History of English Literature
The work is monument of industry. The
author is man OF great intellectual force
and even historical genius, as his last work.
1.-THE Origins of Contemporary France"
shows. Yet his history of English litera.
turc is strange example of inability to
enter into the real meaning of the writers
he attempts to analyzs, and his most
ambitious efforts are also the most con-
spicuous failures. We do not think that
it would be possible for Shakespeare,
Dickens, and Thackeray, to be more
hOpelessly misconceived than they are by
Tame. He gives what he thinks is a care.
full and minute analysis of them. In reality
it is a grotesque and unacceptable carica-
ture, in many respects almost as extraya-