New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-03-26
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
LANG'S ESSAYS.

There arc sixteen papers in this volume, OF
s,,,ioh G,.. ore new while Of tie remainder the
GREATER mart appeared in periodicals seldom seen
nv Am.ric,n readers. The essays are on the most
vorious subjects, aad they are all cmincn'ly read
.h1. ,rbcv include discussions on Alexander
Dumas Mr.. Stcvensons Works, Theodore de Ian
vile. Homer and the Study OF Greek. Inc Last
Fashionable Novel, Thackeray, Dickens AuVeh-
,urcs of Buccaneers, The Sasas, Charles h.As9cS'
Charles Lever, The Poems of Sir wancr oco'''
John Bunyan, Mr.. kipling's Stores, ana Les'ei
10 Young Journalist. The hrst essay, Oh nHeA,
andre Dumas, appeared in Scrloners Al"s1~pie
md is therefore familiar to many LII Is oH"iN
inc nancr full Of appreciation and admiration.
AR Ianps literary criticisms indeed are olteh IL
not always. of kind TO arouse the Inclination OF
49, oon,omnt of those followers Of the new lights
,,ho tbink il is a mark of intellectual superiority
.. oorn and sneer AT the dead giants and masters
80 6ct;on This hard-headed Scotchman eVlHehuS
bos little in common with the naturastc schoo
uo ;s q frank and even enthusiastic admirer VI
,,r;tors like Dumas. Scott Dickens 1hackelas'
Iover' etc and so welded is he TO his IDOLS 'ha'
no does not even think it necessary TO apoiosi~c
for his beretical likings 10 deprecate 'he see'
Judgment of such as have turned their DacNS uP0A
the critical standards of the last seneration'
u Is nerbops a comfort TO reflect tha' annohH
ranv mon there are many minds, however .n"'
nubIic opinion is on the whole more conso
than radical: and that the new schooi " WV
contrary Notwithstanding, the Enghsh-spe"nine
nconIe everywhere continue to buy, reau' anu i'
;oice in Scott. Thackeray and Dickens. anu are
Int slightly IL at ALL influenced by the lcohoci"'-
+ic views of the modern re1ormers vi i'oi"S
art Yet il is possible to admire some OF 'ile o'
authors in way which is not Wholly app'
tive. and this fact Dir. Lang ILLUSTRATES III lis
noner ON Dickens. 1t is of course mainly In
S;ao,i,.o Of temperamental popularity that he
sbou1d be unable TO feel the natural influence
Of Dickens's pathos Some people are SO consul
,ntod that all writing which seems TO appear
% tho omotions is repulsive; and as 1t Is human
,ature IN attribute our own defects TO the causes
(which MT them in evidence, those VINO suier
from this insensitiveness always affect TO take d
lind of pride in it, as though it were PROOF OF
moral or intellectual superiority. MS we arc
sorry to say, is very much MI Lang P'si'o'i.
and it is not becoming TO him. So generally oroao
and liberal a man surely should nave taken lh'o
consideration the fact that very large CLASS vi
neope LOSSES quite other ways OF looking al tese
things: that these differently constituted people
do not see in the pathQs OF dickens cause Vi
ieerng, hooking cynicism, nut tehoer anu true
nresentation of those human emotions which eXer-
nractical matters and which, If the novelist lg-
nores bc fails in his art and his representative
undertakings
IT, has been for some time fashion with GER
tain critics to pretend lofty pity for Dickenss
weakness and per-sentlmentality, illustrated
nv such characters as Little Nell and Paul DOM
hoy. etc. Such scenes as the deaths OF these
children we are told, are not natural. Chlldreh
do not die that way; do not say pathetic Things
when they are dying do not in their deaths suS-
gest or Justify the emotional fulness ana dep'h Vi
expression which Dickens employs All THIS we
are asked to believe, is mere 1usuan,
meretricious in bad taste, and so forth Perhaps
il is time that some answer should DE maze 10
this kind of criticism, and the simplest and most
direct answer would be that it is not founded III
LOYALTY to the facts. 1t might be added that the
artist who fails TO recognize the speclal pathoS
which attaches TO the death OF the young, or VINO
docs not know that children, and particularly such
children as Paul Dombey, are often wise far pe-
vond their years-is very poorly equipped artist;
while the man-artist, critic or reader-whose hear'
does not respond to such beauty and tenderness
.s Dickens has impaired 10 his most moving cpl
Sodes stands convicted of certain hardness ana
cal1ousness which, however involuntary II may
no cannot he admired and still more certainly
cannot be made the warrant for harsh CRITICISM
of that which the critic lacks the capacity 10
understand The views of color-bhnd person
Oh tints and combinations may he ln'ereSuhg'
but can hardly be instructive, and these crlcs oI
Dickens are emotionally blind 1t is pity that
Mr.. Lang should be found in the ranks OF an
invalid class but, after all, 1t is rare 10 meeO
thorough "all-round" men, even in these days
when omn!science is becoming common folble
Mr. Lang however, redeems his fault as regards
Dickens by his hearty and robust admiration LOT
Scott's poetry This is another " bette nolr oil the
naturalists, who have agreed TO pour contempt
and disparagcment upon the stirring verse OF the
Wizard of the North. We thank MI Lang LOT MS
healthy appreciation in this case. and for such
criticism as the following 1.-The charges against
Sir Walters poetry are on the whole. little more
than the old critical fallacy of blaming thing
for not being something else. 1t takes all sorts
,o make a world in poetry as in life. Sir wal
TORS sort is very good sort. and In EnGlsh
literature its place was empty and waiting lor
him Think of what he did. English poetry
had long been very tame and commonplace wrl'Vn
in couplets like Popes, very arthclai ana smart,
or sensible and slow. He came with poems OIL
which the music seemed to gallop like laundering
hoofs and ringing brides of rushing border
troop. Here were goblin. ghost and fairy. lght
and foray fair ladies and true lovers, gahahU
knights and hard blows, blazing beacons on every
hillcrest and on the partisan of every tower
Here was world made alive again that had been
dead for 800 years-a world OF men and women
Mr.. Lang's essay on the French poet lheodore
de Banville appears very opportuneiy upon ,ne
decease of the subject His Judgment upon nc
Banvilles poetry moreover. is clear ana SOUND
ave- perhaps. in regard to his Prussian idyils III
which there is a good deal too much of the Paul
y,.,,,o1o s,,rit Every French writer of the war
neriod seems TO have been impelled by patriotic
feslnos 70 melt the Teutonic invader according TO
his gifts and opportunities. but the poetry written
unon this theme was not of the kind TO live by
any process of natural selection. De Banvllle was.
hA.raror q nond nnet within his limitations. and