New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-10-23
MR.. MATTHEWS'S ESSA US.
SOME CHARACTERISTICS IN HIS METHOD
OF CRITICISM.
AMFRICANISMs AND CRITICISMS. With other es
SAYS other ISSUES. By Brandcr Matthews. PIP.
100 Harper & Brothers.

AMFRICAN1sMs AND CRITICISMS With other es
says on other issues. By Brandcr Matthews. PIP.
100. Harper & brothers.
In one Of his conversations, Coleridge dstin-
guished Lamb as a great critic from IIazlitt, as
much less than great by the fact that the ono
added thought to thought as he wrote' while the
other simply presented the thought which had
mastered him, in various aspects. II is TO be
imagined that those who read this collection Of
papers by Mr. Matthews will he Inclined to asso-
ciate him with the school of IIazlitt rather than
that OF Lamb. He certainly does not always
march forward from one thought TO another. His
proposition j. sometimes turned over and over
again in new words, with new illustrations. new
arguments. and sometimes with renewed ANNA
ton, but il energies at the end just what il was
in the first place, and might safely be repeated
after the manner Of geomctcr. with valiant
quod crat Reconsideration. There is no disput-
ing says he, that NJ lola is man with
dirty mind There is no disputnG. Also that
he il a novelist Of most extraordinary fccundity
and force" Here he might have stopped, for his
subsequent discussion neither increases ror di.
minishrs the meaning Of this one thought I'm
spirit il not in letter, the essayst has violated
his own Injunction 10 the small. fy Of criticism
TO quit when they have said all they have TO
say Tie apprcclativc estimat" Of Mark Twain :
best story" contains a series of thoughts such as
Cocrdgc would acknowledge 10 he varied; but
he would have denied their logical relationship
except in the concluding analysis. That luVehue
literature Is better now than II used To pr
viii! not hc questioned by the present g'ncrntion.
II il a significant fact i'm reference To tins ma
ter however. that most representatives, 81 pre-
vious generations are dead, and the argument
il really somewhat onc-eidcd. But, at any rave
,hi. statement with which III" c~-oyist begins
forms no basis for the wholly Independent r'hi'rN
tina, "a a SEQUEL 10 Tom sawyer the story Of
Uucklcbcrry Finn" rcvcrscs tie usual iatc OF
eeouels bv being rot merely successful. but In
trnsicaly better than It's pre- lcccssor u j.
from this point ~ that Mr.. Matthews does
mcasurably ,,ha, Colcridec declared lIazlit could
no, do His treatment Of IIuck Finn. bfef A.
II l. .bow. progress and evolution First, the
character Of tl. boy hero himself grows win
fcv- incsiye strokes, then that OF the o'He'
nersonacn. collectively. TO the final summing up
IN tho words. They have one great charih' All
of tbem-tlcy arc not written about ana aoo",
they arc no, described and disscctcd ana aHaS ~"
they appear play their, part ana disappear a..
vet they leave sharp impression oil ih"u"''"'"
yit,litv md indvduality' A.
Mr. Matthews /. trhc disconrteous 10 'i'c
memory ~ the mon who created Inc 'P'.
:, - ,,.iion ~ tho present day 70 talk rs II
,;sdo,, v.,- horn after the middle of the hih'
,ccnth century and was likely q be ouri"i VII"
tho last literary man Of the present g"h''"''""
10Th Addison and Steele had faults, ou' IL J.
hardly po,sibie that they may Dc r'a" WIZ"
o,oo Of their modern dctrnctors are iorS"'""'
II j. Of itself wonderful fact that what was
really mere newspaper writing IN the u'o W
Oucer Ann should have survived so long d.
has. bat II il more wonderful that so'ne N''"'
cdgc Of this old-time stun should SIN d. ooF
.idor.d indi.nonsahle even to sconty polite
education onc may pick flaws in the grammar
of In. Short-faccd Nan and SIT Roger de Covrrl"y
aud I'll. rest hut the old coffee house cot"rl" mas
something TO any TO one even yet tho' "o''"
needing ,
\. 70 the quarrel between American and BRUSH
au,hor. over National pcculiarltics IN hct'n'
.nelling and even i'm the wclghtirr matters "'
genius il must he confessed that ~ recalls the
ocrcratior which, il was said. rcscmbled chlldreh
filling the markell place with their shrlIl clniho'
"Wo have pipcd urto you and We nave NOV
danced II is too much the practice 10 ''N'
literature collectively under some more OF F'7'
artificial system Of classification The crying h'''
now is for Individuality and greatness 'hi'
may scorn boundaries, whether mental or geo
r,,Iical Suppose Americans gird Mt EnsllshInen
hocausc tbcrc il no one 10 fill Tcnnysons place
Ia not the answer rat that Lowell and GURUS
left an aching void on this sid" OF the Auahuc'
Whether the worthy successors OF these men arc
:, ri.e in Canada, or Australia, or America, or
India. or Ireland. or Scotland, or England, or
Wales. or wherever the English language ~
spoScn it is the business OF these days ana nights
OF small thing. to watch for the coming OF
acnius y, other language has so often renewed
its youth in literature as the English. Whrh
the great men come they will mould the TIM"
honorcd speech TO their purpose ana there Will
he no quarrel about letters here and there