The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-05-06

his memory as being the victims OF his
guilt? The multitudinous seas cannot wash
and make clean the souls or those who are
thus polluted, and IL there be a he'll. a very
hot place should be reserved for those who
IA tne realm or literature mix poison with
the intellectual food they furnish TO the
public under the guise OF literature. And
those who sell and those who read are
p~artakers in the authors guHt. II Simple
Simon allows the pieman to go unmolested
10 the fair, he escapes the pains and PEN
aIties or promiscuous pie eating. 1 have
loco plant is popularity supposed to contain
an alkali poison. Its effects upon the horse
are peculiar. The animal that once gets a
taste for II seldom RECEIVERS. Whenever OPP
portunity offers he gorges himself with the
weed. He may look fat and sleek. but he
has a lack-luster eye. and no amount OF
show any spirit. He loses all relish for
his customary food. Corral him in the
midst OF fragrant stacks OF eW-mow hay
and oats and he turns from them in dis
gust. He chafes against the fence. rubs off
his hair, and abrades his hide In his strug-
giles to get at the coveted weed.
"The victims of the realistic school OF
literature bear all these marks. and where
ever one meets them, in parlor, boat, hotel.
Of compassion-incurable sufferers from in
tellectual paresis. 1t does not change the
Tact that the victims are unconscious or
their terrible state. nor that they stoutly
deny 1t. To use medical parlance, the ma
lignity of the disease is emphasized by the
way IL which 1T juggles with It's victims be-
fore it extinguishes their intellectual lives.
1t changes their personality, and they be-
come TO their friends a fearful memory and
a terrible objective presence
In the moral desert Of vulgar litera-
ture,' says Carlyle, with its sand wastes
and parched and bitter and too often pois-
0nouS shrubs, the writings OF men like
Richter will arise in their irregular lux
uriance like a cluster of date palms with
it's green sward and well of water to re-
fresh the pilgrim in the sultry solitude
with nourishment and shade There is no
dearth of good wholesome literature. Why
makes out his case. / think, when he seeks
to maintain that Scott and Dickens surely,
and Thackeray probably, are neither OBJ
solete nor obsoiesecent. Even Professor
Jowett. late master of Balliol College. OK
ford, one OF the best men and greatest
scholars of the century, was not ashamed
that he considered Dickens as entitled TO
a place in the front rank Of English prose
.vive even the destructive criticisms of Mr..
HOwells and Mr.. Hamlin Garland. They
viii. be read and enjoyed probably when the
nash-light Impressions of Mr.. James. and
Mr.. Howells and the smaller fry Of the
literary kodak school nave been forgotten.
NEWSPAPER LITERATURE.
And shall I pause to say a word about
the sort of stuff which is purveyed to us
by our newspaper press as literature?
Omitting all mention Of the Satanic press,
which is evil only and that continually, is
it not true that the constant reading of
our great newspapers, which constitute a
part Of the reading of everybody, and all
OF the reading of a great many, has a
tendency to spoil a taste for that which is
best? If literary clubs have other func-
tons, it is certain that ii should be their
aim TO do their utmost to form, encourage
and correct the style OF our writer's. We
must confess that in these days the waters
of the pure wells of English are sadly de-
filed.
the man nr nC GnnthA mute - ttho Otulo
of a writer is a faithful representation of
his mind; therefore If any man wishes TO
write a clear style. let him be first clear in
his own thoughts, and If any mar would
write a noble style, let him first possess a /
noble SOUL And nothing conduces so pow |
fully TO give one a lucid form Of express |
sion as a constant and increasing famil- |
iarity with the classics. / do not use the
term classic in the scholastic sense which
pieces of Greek and Roman literature, but
with the larger meaning which comprises
of all times, ancient and modern. The
great French Critic, st. Beuve, In his essay |
entitled What is a Classic? gives a deinl-
the French language will not enable me to
translate accurately and l can only hope
such as ] love to define II is an author who
has enriched the human understanding, who
has really augmented it's treasure, who has
line of Improvement, who has disclosed
some really new truth or excited some new
passion in hearts where everything seemed
to have been known and explored, who |
has expressed his thought in a large way, |
sane and beautiful in itself; who has talked |
to everybody in a style that is new without
neologism-new and antique at the same
time-the contemporary of all ages That |
which has made and kept the French
the serviceable medium of expression for
all civilized nations in international affairs, |
that which has almost justified the extraya:
Ii is the only language that has honesty |
attached to Its genius. that it so sure, |
serviceable and reasonable; that ii is, in !
fact, no longer the French language, but
the human language;' that which has pre-
served. in it all these excellencies is the
men of France and the Academy who have
for more than two centuries frowned upon
by the introduction OF new and equivocal /
words which are the cause OF so much that \
is obscure in the modern English prose
writer's. /
II cannot accept the canon of Mr.. Pater.
that because human life has become more
complex it is necessary to speak
complex and didiculf to unde gsSnMdy
Pascal, who may be said to
have fixed the French language in the
there Is not a single obsolete word, whose
genius for clearness of expression has never
been surpassed, said of his style, which
amazed his contemporaries, that in writing, |
il was his habit 10 write four words and
erase three. Middling writer's. as well as
- 81 III W EONO uIII n
men. The fussy anxiety for present recog- |
milton. the shouldering to the front. which r
is in such perfect keeping with our busy, |
hurrying American life. which Mr.. KipIing
aptly compares TO a crowd at a railway 1
station, degrades and consigns TO early |
obscurity and perpetual oblivion many
writers who. working with more patience |
and care. might be of permanent service |
to mankind.
Jean Paul, who knew what poverty and
lack OF recognition meant in all their Bit
terness, could say, 1T would be my greatest |
reward If at the end of twenty years some |
reader as many years old should return |
thanks to me that the book he is then |
reading was read by his parents But Rich |
ter der Einzige.' as the Germans love to
call him. worked upon a different plane and
from different motives from those that in
spire the brood of middling writer's who, |
like buzZing insects to whom they have |
been compared, only have a capacity for
II may be possible that we
may be living in the day of small things |
and should not despise them, but comfort |
ourselves with the philosophy of our quaint |
old friend. Sir Thomas Browne, who tells |
US not to seek for whales in the Euxine |
or expect great matters where they |
are not TO be found. S-chopenhauer says the
great cause of the degradation of style |
comes from the neglect of the classics, |
and over and over again Goethe, speaking |
from his great height. and sweeping so wide |
y horizon with his clear vision, is telling us
that there is through all art and literature, |
i.