New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-05-20
BOOKS AND MEN.
ESSAYS BY X. II. HUTTON.
CRITICISMS on CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT
AND THINKERS.-Seected from THE Spec
tator BY Richard Holt Hutton. NJ. a. In
two volumes. PIP. viii. &c. vi, 37S. Macmillan
story possibl

AND THINKERS.-Seected from THE SPEC
volumss f Pa VIII hC54 s H VT S. Nj aasmd In
& Co.
These volumes. among other marks OF value
have that Of indicating how time passes with the
modern world The word Contemporary" In the
title would hardly suggest that nearly all the
thinkers mentioned in these pages are dead
Carlyle Emerson. Dickens. j. s Mil. Matthew
Arnold. Clifford. Tyndall. Dr. Martineau
Maurice, Bagehot, Dean Stanley Darwin. Sharp
Tennyson. Ward Thirlwar and Mage~ have all
passed away-not to speak OF others whom Mr.
Hutton mentions. but who belong almost 10 an
other generation. These men were the instruc-
tors. each In his own way. OF the present gen
GRAFTON; but they can hardly be said 10 speak It's
thoughts. Sometimes the thoughts they uttered
fit into what men are thinking to-day. ana 1t Is
easy to see how gladly the minds OF many res,
In their authority or in that Of other great men
who laborcd beside them. So far as there has
been change then, Mr.. Hutton in these volumes
But he discusses IT from a point OF view which
Is as well occupied as II ever was II ~ IN
the main the right point Of view. but II - not
one from which TO see revolutionary ideas most
clearly. The startling hypothesis OF modern SCI
ence have a look OF vagueneS when shown
through the perspective arranged by one author.
Either he did not perceive all that the inventors
of these theories meant by them or he did not
for anything his own differences from
the data. real or supposittious that were FUR
nished him Those who read these volumes At
tentively can hardly fail to see that Mr. Hutton's
value az a critic lies In the fact that he speaks
for the many and not for the few He has a
conservatism which may be said to be that Of the
he uc -,
Of men which, taking men as they CO. would
be formed by the majority Of people II Is
hard 10 find a sentence that betrays an ex-
IRENE opinion on any subject or an unconven-
tional method even in trifes
or course. the average man Is apt 10 link his
animosltes with his opinions. But there Is little
display Of mere feeling In Mr. Hutton's criticism
Censure and praise likely 10 follow each
other under the same name, with critical i'm
Partially. one reason is, perhaps, that Mr. Hut
toms literary interests are very wide lie likes
a book Of sermons well as book OF science
new novel and a volume in meta physics
are equally welcome. lie is az ready with views
on Amiel. who could hardly live outside OF his
own thoughts. as on Dickens, who could not sur
vive the essen!ng Of external activity lie com
presses bookful OF criticism into n line when
he describes Amel az unable ITO commit him.
self to any practical course which would mort
gage. as II were. his intellectual freedom" One
would like TO change the phraseology, so as 70
make 1t what he imagined to be his Intellectual
freedom. for 1t would be hard TO find a case OF
mental slavery TO ones self more abiect than that
or Amiel; but as II stands. the sentence meets
the views exactly OF nine persons In ten who
read the Genevan professors confessions Turn
ing to Dickens. the critic, more at length but
equally to the purpose. says: Dickens depended
more than most men on the stimulus which
outer things provided for him; first on the ex-
element caused by the popularity OF his books
and on that which he drew from his own per-
sonal friends private appreciation; then on the
applause which attended his actings and read
ings the intensity OF the eagerness 10 hear him
and the emotion he excited; and lastly. on the
triumph excited by the counting up OF the al
most fabulous sums which the readings pro-
duced. These were evidently the moral drains
without security for which his life would have
lost all Its spring and interest and II is clear
that as his productiveness as an author began
10 fall. he grasped eagerly at the quasi-theatri-
cal powers displayed In his readings 10 Ill I'D the
blank he was beginning to feel and to compen-
safe him for the restlessness and almost despair
which the consciousness that his genius was on
the wane began to produce In him" Again, In
a comparison on the score Of genius between
carlyle and Emerson. he comes to the praise OF
the former after saying as harsh things about
him as he permitted himself to say OF anybody
He makes Carlyle greater than Emerson for the
simple reason that he was successful The rating
or the two men is possibly correct. but how about
the reason? 1t is thus that he speaks Of them:
Emerson's transcendental essays are full OF
dark and vague symbolism which carries weight
only In proportion 10 the extent Of our Ignorance
not to the extent Of our knowledge. Now, Car
lyle. so far as he was transcendentalist stuck to
the very truth and reality Of nature. He
showed us how small proportion OF our life we |
can realize in thought: how small q proportion
OF our thoughts we can figure forth In words;
how immense Is the difference between the pre-
tensions OF human speech and the real life for |
which II stands; how vast the forces amidst |
which the human spirit struggles for It's little |
modicun OF purpose; how infinite the universe, |
both In regard to space and time. on which we I
make our little appearances only to subside again
before we can hope materially TO change the |
great stream Of tendencies which contains us. |
and he made us feel, az hardly any other has |
made us feel, how. in spite Of all this array Of |
immensities in which we are hardly distin- |
guishable speck. the spirit whose command |
brings us into being requires of us the kind Of |
life which defies necessity and breathes into the