The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-06-09

Nym Crinkle on Literature and the Drama.
What will be the condition of literature
and drama 100 years hence?
To keep the answer to this question out
of the category of mere guesses on the one
hand and save it from the imputation Of
rash prediction on the other, it must be de-
duced from the indications of the present.
There Is feverish energy in every de-
partment of intellectual life just now that
is symptomatic. Every person of fairly
good education and of restless mind writes
book. AS a rule, it is superficial book,
but it swells the bulk and it indicates the
cerebral unrest that is trying to express it
self We have arrived at condition in
which more books are printed than the
world can read. This is true not only of
books that are not worth reading, but it is
true of the books that are.
All this / take to be the result of an in
tellectual Acknowledgement that is new, and
of dissemination of knowledge instead of
a concentration of culture. Everybody
wants to say something. But it is slowly
growing upon the world that everybody
has not got something to say
Therefore one may even at this moment
detect the causes which will produce reac-
tion. In 100 years there will not be so many
books printed, but there will be more said.
That seems to me to be inevitable. 1t is
certainly in the direction of intellectual de-
velopment, which implies that man reaches
a condition individually and socially, if he
progresses at all, in which he cares less
about talking than about doing.
But, taking the whole bulk of current
literature, good, bad and indifferent, and
acknowledging that as a mass it is more
active than profound, there is nevertheless
an observable tendency in tit is measur-
ably moving toward a somewhat!
If we can get the direction and the ratio
we may reasonably measure its progress
during the next century.
Now what is that tendency?
l do not see how any one can diligently
| investigate the material without perceiving
| that its slow advance is toward better
| humanity, closer fraternity, broader
charity. These signs arc unmistakable even
| in its lighter veins of cynicism and persi-
| hage.
Nine-tenths of all the imaginative writers
are jibing at the wrongs of society. The
other tenth are jibing at the political short
comings Ofcourse they have ideals, against
which they adjust the real Some of these
| ideals are made of moonbeams; some are
wildly impracticable; others are fantasies
| on Plato's notion or travesties of More's
dream. But the incentive is a restless sense
of imperfection and a growing conscious
| ness of central sun somewhere in the
moral and intellectual universe which is
pulling all things to it. When this is not
a distinctly theistic feeling, it is vague
philosophic counterpart of it.
So far as this is gain in unity and rea-
sonableness, it is permanent gain. / can
conceive of no political or social disaster
that will destroy it..
The philosopher who undertakes to sur.
vey this ground needs not be an extreme
| optimist to see that there is distinct ethic.
al gain in the aggregate Of intellectual
work. When it does not lead it reflects, In
broken and uncertain CLEANS, the spirit OF
the age, and that spirit stands for better
solidarity and nobler destiny for man.
Under all the factors that must influence
the intellectual future, broader and deeper
than any of them lies education. II you
want to find out what the future man will
say you will have to ask, What will be
know
At this moment the whole educational
energy of the country Is centering itself or
the want of an ethical basis OF instruction
1t is not alone the Catholic CHURCH that OBJ
jects to the system which makes smart mer
instead of good men. Some of the wisest Of
Protestant teachers have conceded that oul
public school system is fatally deficient II
the elemental teaching which develops the
moral sense and makes honest citizens.
This protest, take it, is another form
of the reaction against the intense materi
alism of the time. But it is also sign o.
intellectual development. No one wht
studies it can doubt that the education o.
our youth during the next fifty years will
be in measure freed from the mathemat
ical restrictions of the present courses.
If we now recognize the fact that labol
everywhere is insisting that more time Il
study and rest shall be taken from toll, ant
add this to the fact that the studies promis,
to improve in the direction of ethics, d.
not see how we can avoid the conclusion
that, barring some great and incalculabl,
convulsion that would throw mankind