The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-08-11
WRITING FOR POSTERITY
BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.

A recent critic in an English peril odical suggests the expediency of pub- fishing only posthumous literature. The MS. of no author is to be sent to the printers until fifty years after. that authors death. There is something very winning and stimulating in this idea.
 Of course, in view of such law, the support of authors would devolve upon the government; in other words, they would receive from the public purse fixed salaries, sufficient to enable them to enter into and mediate upon the life around them. Two difficulties present themselves at this point :: First, inasmuch as anybody might be willing to allow himself to be re- garded as an author, on the condition of being paid, say, two hundred year for the concession, it might hap pen that unworthy and avaricious persons would claim the salary, and after life of idle indulgence, turn over to the state nothing more valua- ble than an old ledger, or bundle of wrapping paper. Secondly, and in part as corollary of this, the public might object to supporting any authors at all, on the plea that for once the money was well applied it would be wasted in ninety mine.
 But remedies for these difficulties are not far to seek. Bonds, sufficient to provide against loss, might be re- quired of intending authors, forfeita- ble in case his productions fell below certain standard of merit; it might also be we'll to stipulate that authors whose writings exceeded 8 certain quantity of octave pages should be liable to proportionate diminution of salary. A bench of judges might, perhaps, be in continual session, to de- termine whether the works that the author was in process of bringing forth were of kind to warrant pre- servation and it would doubtless be desirable to oblige all applicants to undergo a strict examination as to their abilities and requirements, before being admitted to any of the privileges ot the fund. Next, as re- gards the source of this fund, it would not be necessary to take it ou: of the pockets of uninterested tax payers. A far more equitable arrangement would be to constitute it of the receipts from the sales of previous authors books. Iii this way, one generation would support the next; and special kinds of literary work could be the source whence the expenses of the same branch, in the succeeding generation, were defrayed.
 We need not dwell on these prelim- inaries they will readily adjust them- selves when little experience shall have exposed the weak features of the system. Let us assume, then, that the fund is judiciously administered to worthy recipients. One more stipu- lation, indeed, would possibly come to be considered advisable, and that is, that no author should be allowed to marry. They must one and all be welded to the muse, and she must have no rivals. Unwillingness to acquiesce in this condition should be considered evidence that the applicant was deficient in that supreme artistic enthusiasm that is one of the most trustworthy harbingers of artistic success; and the fact that authors would thus have no children, would not only obviate countless contingent expenditures, but it would guard against the peril that one or more of these children might inherit and put in practice authorial tendencies. For it is manitestly expedient, in the in- terests of true literature, that it's pro- fessors should be fit and few; that there should be constant infusion of fresh blood, and that anything with hereditary participation shall be dis couraged.
 We are now in position to consider | the effects upon writers, and upon their writings, of this fifty years limit. If know that no line of my | iud:t;ng vii. see the light until half 8 century after my bones have mold l cred in the grave, what will be the results upon my mental attitude and | my performance? Hitherto a large part of my activity, if not the whole | of it, has been consequent upon two considerations: first, the hope of pe- cuniary returns therefrom; and, sec ondly, the pleasure of seeing myself in | print, of hearing myself praised-and even blamed for blame itself is better than silence. All these inducements are now non-existent. Never shall my l eyes rest upon 8 bound and printed volume bearing my name upon the title-page. Never shall my ears be ravished by the popular voice pro- nouncing me distinguished author an eminent novelist. However long, dilig.nt and honorable my lite may be, shall die at last unhonored and unknown. No friend of mine will be | proud ef me; no rival will gnash his teeth in inpotent envy. No severity | Of labor. nss splendor of 9enius. will !