The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-12-01
LETTERS OLD AND NEW.

Sa0 FraDclScdnS are 10 Do CONGRATULATED
on the opportunity they are enjoying of
acquiring useful KIN owledge impaired in
an entertaining way in this winters lecture
rooms. Reference has been made pre-
viously to the course on evolution by the
president of Stanford University. The
course of University of California lectures
on the poets and dramatists of the
eighteenth century is also drawing good
audiences. Professor Styles talk on Thom-
SOD, Collins and Gray was the latest OF the
series.
The learned professor resurrected the
three poets from the grave with grace and
el0Quence Perhaps some of his hearers
may have felt that it was almost pity to
hear so much fine wit and taste expended
upon those writers. A race which speaks
the Anglo-Saxon tongue will never forget
the Eiegy on a Country Cburchyard,"
but Gray wrote little else that the public
now reads. OF Collins we have only few
odes: the one 10 the Passions is still
learned by schoolboys; but he is in fair
way to be forgotten. As for Th omson, it is a
safe assumption that no one but professor
of bellies lettres ever reads the Seasons I"
through. All three poets deserved well of
edge of their works is indis pensa bic to an
historical literary course, but it Is not to
be expected that modern readers should
become enthusiastic over them.
With due exceptions in favor of the i'm
mortal masterpieces of the past students
of letters will employ their time more USE
fully at the present day if they read the
books of the present age. The schools of
liter AZURE are active; to acquire knowl-
edge of their spirits and their aims is a
wholesome and instructive pursuit. Young
men and women imbued with an ardent
thirst for the things which are In books
crave information which men like Pro-
fess or Syle are well fitted to impart. What
is the deeadent movement in literature of
W hich we hear so much? Critics tell US
that it is a new school, partly impression.
ist and partly symbolist; that the Con-
courts were its founders and Stephen
Ballarme is its high priest; that its aim is
TO paint the essence of truth, the truth of
the visible world to the eyes that see it.
the truth of spiritual things to the spiritual
vision. This may all be plain to the pro-
fessors of the decadence; but to the aver
age person it is very abstruse indeed. Yet
there is such a school. and the enthusiasts
who used to rave over Browning are now
going into ecstacies over Huysman. Prob
ably in the course of this series of lectures
on letters the professors of literature will
explain to US the true inwardness Of fin de
steele decadence.
A theme which will bear good deal of
elucidatiOn is the tendency of modern
writer's to realism. What is realism? We
are told that lola is the head Of the school
and that the popularity of his method is
the microscopic analysis of physical phe-
nomena. We see that nothing is too base
or vile to be disdained by his camera, and
that his reproduction of life is photo
graphically real. Extending his method TO
the spiritual world. Sarah Grand and Mrs.
Humphry Ward lay bare psychological
phenomena. Is this to be the school of
the future? That new school Is at hand
seems to be assured. Of hardly one of the
popular novelists of the day can a pub
Usher feel certain when he sends one of
their books to the press that it will sell.
The reading public crave something new.
What shape will the novelty take? That
is a question which professors of belle
lettres may reasonably be expected to
answer