The morning call., 1894-04-25

ence that Professor Hudson considered.
John Keats. he said, had treated it with
absolute indifference, turning to the past
FOR his ideals Rossett and Morris also
believed that knowledge meant disalluson.
Matthew Arnold had only had hopes for
the future race of man-for himself none.
Tennyson, of all poets. had taken scieE-
tifc facts and illumned them with his
genius. Browning. George Eliot, George
| Buchanan and Walt Whitman also belonged
to the age of development.
The paper concluded with the express
sion OF the belief that the coming man will
read poetry and will sit at the feet of the
poet as much as of the philoso, her,
1.-The Science of Literature" by Profess
sor a. +. Lange. was paper expressed in
Understanding phraseOlogv. The profess
sor. after stating that There are SEINE
grounds for fearing that the discussion of
literature as science means calamity if
not death to the art" went on to state in
what sense literature Can legltimately be
styled a science, namely, that it becomes
science TO one who concentrates his atten-
ton upon it. The method in which uni
versal genius might possibly undertake
| scrutiny of universal literature was then
outlined, with many divisions and suhdi-
visions, for, as the speaker observed, mo
science should be withoutits method oogy."
st might be urged" concluded the pro-
| lessor, that the science of literature will
devitaIize it. l answer by question, Has
the study of nature devtaliZed nature?'
Put drop of water beneath microscope.
and then answer whether it has done So"
The refreshing simplicity and quaint
humor of the paDer on Child Literature"
by Lieutenant r. II. Fletcher L. 5. A, de-
lighted the audience. and caused the
| speaker to be interrupted by constant
| applause. After alluding to the rapid
growth in America of child literature dur
ing the last twenty-five years Lieutenant
| Fletcher alluded TO 1.-The sad DAYS of our
grandfathers' childhood. when the chill
dren seemed 10 be holding out pleading
hands for something, people did not know
what. Il do not, however. approve OF the
| self-righteous manner in which some of
our grandparents are in the habit of allud-
| ing 10 DR.. Watts, indicating that they were
brought up exclusively on such Spartan
| food as TITS the voice OF the sluggard,'
etc. As fact, / have never been able to
| determine what moral effect these pre-
| cepts had on our grandparents"
| The importance of good pictures in
chlldren's books was dwelt upon mot
only TO aid in appreciating the text. but in
improving the artistic taste. The boy of
to-day would laugh to scorn the distorted
Biblical pictures of his ancestors.
There is a weak and colorless literature
| for children, which may not do much posi-
tive harm though it is likely TO make
weak mind and inspire taste for trashy
| novels. There is also a very decidedly
| harmful literature for children. dealing
with the lowest criminal element. Twenty
! five or thirty years ago the books boys
| read were sensational, but not vicious.
| they only begot in us the desire to become
| pirates or Indian chiefs. Today the
writer's of sensational child literature have
found new subject in crime"
| Some suggestions were ,hen made about
/. e.
! fairy tales were praised. but stories OF
| bogies and ghosts condemned, aud the
! sneaker concluded his paper. which
| throughout had the ring of real sympathy
with children by the words. tine beauty
of the true should be the key nOte of all
| child-literature."
The evening session was entirely taken
uD in the discussion Of poetry as a tribute
to the highest phase of literature. Pro-
| lessor Melville b. Anderson of Stanford
| University read paper upon the per-
maneDce of poetry, In which he reviewed
| its history from its earliest reriod to the
present day. In the time OF Elizabeth,
when Shakespeare unfoIded to the world
| the products of his imaginative mind,
| which have ever since remained as mental
| nourishment 10 the students of tile higher
| art, this great school was encouraged by
such geniuses as have followed in his
! tracks and has created the most sublime
! inspirations OF intellectual thought.
The speaker contended that there Is to-
day noted decline in the poetcal world,
| both from its standpoint as a producer
we'll as consumer. He ceud not recall
even one really great living roet whose
works are accepted as standard. While
| on the other hand he claimed that the de-
/ mand for even the higher class OF poetry
was on the decline. This fact he at
! tributed to the hustle and turmoil OF the
present generation in business life. leaving
/ all else but the mercantile and industrial
| bulletin aside in the great struggle Tor the
almighty dollar" Then again. the novel
| has stepped into the place of the higher
| forms of literature to feed the imagina-