New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-06
NOT UNCONSCIOUS CEREBsAT70y'

| EMERSON AND CARLYLE DRAGGED TO THE DE-
| FENCE or HIS BooK-"TRIPLE BRASS As
| LAST RESORT.
| To The Edtt0r or the Tribune.
| SIR: A communication in THE TRIBUNE OF
March 90 charges the author of Development Of English
Literature and Language with crude expression and
! uncredited borrowing As an example OF crudy. your
readers are gravely invited TO consider the following
Nature in her first poverty, displaying the primitive
force the self taught. type of the grandeur depth
the religion OF the East.
Every candid person all competent to judge, Will
freely ) that these constructions are gram
atcay and logically correct; t2l that they are neither
involved nor redundant; 81 that they are incomplete
only in the omission OF subject and cOpnla; DILL he
will hut trouble himself to refer to page 1i3 volume l.
that the missing ee ments necessarily and instantly
suggested by the text; 5) that the epsis IN promoting
breyty without any sacrifice of clearness, promotes
economy OF the recipients mental energy-a point of
prime Importance in work designed fundamentally for
learners; 20 that properly to abrdge description Is 'De
secret Of producing vivid impression, just as finger
on the lips is more forcibe than Do not speak, andVO
that he who characterzes crude sentences WHICH,
while elptical--deberatey so-tre perfectly clear rs
well rs concise shows a very Questionable Acquaintance
alike with the principles Of syntsY and with the phoS
only of STYLE It were easy fill columns with forms Oh
tie same type standard writer's but so much crud-
y could purposes Of illustration add little 10 Ie"
chance periods from Emerson and Caryle-perioGs by
punctuatiOn; fragments, When WrcsLeu rum '"oi N"
| nectiOns. Opening the Essays al Ian"oDi hU'
The better for him. .,.,......
Hence. evidently. the tripod, the priest the PeS'''
Foolish whenever You take the and formay
socrates. man Of humble but honest enough;
of the commonest history OF PeIsS9hai hoeiihe'' ~
| remarkable A. to be a cause OF VIII In Others
Turning 70 Hero Worship" CaThe French Revolt
ton would be beter nv attention is at once arrested
| nv such crudlties these:
Very curious.
Not a mealy -mouthed man.
No Dtteitgntsm ia this MahOmet.
A poor, hnrd-,oing ilI-provided man; careless OF
| what other men toll for.
| man. Full OF wild faculty fire and light
Struggle often bafed, sore bafiied down as INTO entire
wreck yet a struggle ended ever with tears re-
pentance, true unconquerable purpose begun anew.
Intent upon the vision of realities, he would novclohd
them with needless symbols. Yet one might wonder
that so crude writer should have produced the
state OF German Literature" Richter" Goethe
Burns" and the Life of Schiller" under the age Of
| thirty-twO.
But am further accused OF SEEKING to glitter in stolen
robes Wishing to appear brilliant, might have wished
to a CREATOR but preferring to be useful ehose
rather improver To perfect originality IL were
vain to aspire. All is said" wrote La Bruyere, and
one comes too late that there have been men Tor
| seven thousand years, and that have thought
Time and the press have made it impossible to avoid
preoccupied ground Supposed novelties are rehabil
| itations:
For ont of olde feldes as mon saith.
Cometh al this newe corn from yere 10 yere,
And out OF olde boxes in good faith.
Coneth al this newe science that men leve.
Had not the author OF Hamlet ransacked all minds
he would have been the feebest OF imators. Emerson
can find no better definition of great man than that he
Is one who takes up into himself all knOwa5les as his
food. The artist produced his VEINS, not by pure
effort of Imagination, but by combining into harmo-
NOUS whole beautiful parts of the most beautiful
figures he could obtain models If genus itself Il es
senally receptive folly for me to have thought
OF creating my own fuel The nature and extent Of the
service which hoped to render-a history really OF the
English mnd-required to take all departments Tor
my province, and avail myself OF the best tho ugh
old or new Accordingly. the originality professet at
the outset my Prologue is specifically that which re-
lates TO the general method OF funded ideas,
the ordering collected materials agreeaby to fitness
and truth Does 1t diminish the valCe OF his edce that
the architect who designs IL has not baked the brick or
that his plan may have been the resultant OF innumer
able sug yestions Unhappiy also for my accuser-for
It ia doubtless gratifying be able TO give I'll name TO
the dog that one desires to hang-my Prologue repels
the aspersion that have anywhere drawn without
acknowledgment. &" reread your preface, says Pro-
fesor Richardson. OF Dartmouth 10 sea whether was
not right in thinking you had made full acknowledgment
of indebtedness to authorities. think 1t manifest that
you have. . Such concentrations as those given your
work by the authors educators and newspapers In the
circular are a more than ample reply TO the criticisms
made" Thus the claims OF the hrst-bOrn stand:
My scope and purposes being such indicated, have
wished absorb all the light anywhere radatiDG. To
the many who have helped me- e IS pleasure to record
nv obligations in the manner which seems most accord
ant with the objects ana uses 10 be subseryed-ether
explicitly in the text, collectively in the List OF Au-
th0rities To sources however am pre- emlneny
mdebed-to the literary histOres of Anderson Base ON
and Tame: to the critical essays Macaulay. Baztt and
whppe to the phil Osophical treatses OF eeky Buckle,
Lewes and Uberweg.
After ALL aside the vital question is not of
priority but OF adequate discrimination and successful
use. We shall Webster for his persondca.
ton OF the glory of England, Coming for the rare
imagery of his Plymouth speech unless is first made TO
appear that both efforts have been badly copied All
men are sent into the world to be helpful and society IS
entitled to all that can be effected In its service liza
Horneric simo metaphor may be productive of more
good 6y transfercnce transformation he is bene-
factor who 80 adapts 1t. The criticism which deals
and ances for the sake OF the truth in them,
will not be inclined to quarrel with tue ps7of work
which commands assent "a whole
Nor Is originality understood TO depend upon par
tcular personages Human faces, universally. are made
up OF like features arranged in like order yet finds
its copy II is the total expression that is the essential
thing. Any who writes Cor purpose, simply and
earnestly. will communicate to his own that which dis
tinguishes from all other productions To seize this
general characteristic would be the function OF
all high critics m; aud the catholic critic, who APP
proaches his task with the disposition discover, and
the purpose exhibit whatever OF Eorthness pos
sesses will inquire first aud chiefly whether it Is likely
to exert a favorable untavorable influence. Ira
million libraries 70 contributed TO its birth, much
the better provided only that be homogeneous. vital
lied by personal conviction
For myself have done. He who is deeply convinced
of the truth OF proposition will perhaps be content to
leave II TO take care Itself book. II II has the re-
qusite value lives though thousand critics determine
that IL ought TO die. Having performed my task dll-
gently and faithfully, with warm and an almost unan-
inous approval. | have neither time nor temper 70
engage I'm controversies about it, aud the who
aim nj me their envenOmed shafts VIII find their In
tended victim armed with the triple brass OF ndifer-
ence Nery resppctfully yours A. H. WELSH.