New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-02
THE FASHION or ABBREJIITED LITER1


THE FASHION or ABBREjIiIED LIIEEI
TUkE.
The press in these days swarms with kind
of literature peculiar TO and typical of the Rail-
road Age. Some shrcwd publisher few years
ago conceived the idea that people TO longer
had leisure to read solid works Of any extent
and that what was needed was series OF com
pcndiums, giving the skeletons Of important
subjects From such books, it was argued,
everybody could derive, not indccda full knoWl-
edge of the matters trcatcdof, but at lcastaSut-
fici,nt smattering to enable them to hold their
own i'm superficial discussions. The idea was
prolific and, rs the result appears to prove, pop
ular. Since then the publishing intelligence has
been largely devoted tothc blocking out of new
"royul roads to learning" We have "hand-
books " of everything. Even the encyclopedias
are "bocd down" and the public are earnestly
recommended TO buy universal dictionaries,
thc chief and bCasted merit OF which Il mat
they give the minimum OF information about
the maximum of subjects. Nor has any SUBJECT
cscapcd this process of maccration. Men OF real
or supposed talent are engaged to "cult
selections and authorizations and antholo-
pi.s and condcnsations. The nOycIlStS, the
pocts. the dramatists, the cssayistS, the
bioa1aphcrs the artists, the statesmen, the
rulers. the authors, the diyincs, all, together
with the subjects Of their various labors, are
hacked up. disiointcd distorted, and thus met
amorphoscd and bcdcvilcd are served mp to
public whose capacity for discrimination Is
thereby very seriously threatened II not I'M
paircd And this rage Tor abDrcVlatloh mas
bccn carried into educational matters. we
have "children'sn Plutarchs, and "chIdrens
Arabian Nights. and "childrcn's' Shakespcarcs
and "childrcn's - scientific lessOn-b00ks The
sense of fitness is altogether put out OF sight
noreovor in many of the authorizations Of the
day. The latest announcement OF the KIND, Tor
instance. is an abbrcviation of Rabclais an cx-
nurcotcd edition of an author ncvcrlikciy to be
read largely in his original form save by STU
dents, and whose grOssncss, which IN the cS'l-
nation of many outweighs his Wits only APT
to be brought into more prominence Dy the eA-
purgating process. =
The result of all this hacking and Topping oil
classical and other important literature cannot
but be to PRODUCED superficial and iragmchtary
state of information among the masses. Inc
lrovlcdrc which can be acquired by means OF
skeleton outlines is seldom of much value. NOT
is il mt all possible to obtain an adequate con-
ccntion of any author of note without readlhS
his works in erteRSo. 1t has been argued WIN
some plausibilty that this does not Apply 10
noctry. but we cannot admit the exception
We do not believe that even so generally eA-
cellcnt n selection as wards POcts,' for eX-
annie. ever can take the place OF separate STUDY
of tbe different authors thcrcinrcpresentcd. Inc
characteristics the scope of Il poet, or Oh Il long
noem. cannot be gathered from extracts, now
ever iudiciously made. If such compilations
,yorn only used rs works of reference there
would he some excuse for them, but asmcans OF
cducotion they are not merely defective but
misleading. Tho truth is that the habit OF
trusting TO abbreviated editions for information
| fosters n shallow priggishncss, and increases
dangerously the modern tendency toward indo-
Ience in literary culture. Another effect OF
this fashion is to lower literary standards The
French have a provcrb to the effect that " iii the
| land of the Blind the Onc-cycd man Is King
Inst so. i'm n community of ig:Orant people, the
sciolist will be an intellectual guide. The
masses, having learned to depend upon dciec-
tive means of information, will be unable to
! form sound Judgments upon matters OF the IN
| tellect. OF course il cannot be expected that
if publishers find their profit III this KIND OF
wares they will abstain from manufacturing
| them. Publishers who regard themselves us
occupying responsible positions concerning inc
public are rare, and naturally so. They can, as
a rule, only be expected to cater to what they
think the public taste, and 50 long as the puDllc
taste for abbreviated literature lasts 1t VIII DC
supplied.
But the publishers are not the only per-
sons who are interested, or who have any
thing to say about this question. The reading
public are guided, to an appreciable extent, i'll
their purchase and approval of books, by the
critics. These latter, then, have duty to per-
form, and it could be wished that they realized
its nature more generally and more fully. I'M
fortunately n very large part of the current
criticism. so-called. consists In hurried and not