New-York tribune., 1896-05-31
TWO REFORMERS.
THE GENIAL ALLAN RAMSAY AND THE
INTENSE SHELLEY.
ALLAN RAMSAY. BY Oliphant Smeaton Fa
nous Scots" Series. PIP. 100 Charles Scribner


Sons.
PERCY BYssHE SHELLEY. Poet and Pioneer
By Henry s. Salt Pp xi' ~ LONDON; rihWar!s VII
Sons
1t is not difficult to link these two poets. so re-
mote from each other by means OF very simple
and obvious comparisons and contrasts. 1t Is
the special boast of the admirers of Shelley that
he was a freethinker. But Ramsay Judged by
the standards of his own century and country,
was also a daring freethinker He ran counter
all his life to the prejudices OF the sternly re-
ligious Scots. who bought his books while they
consigned him In angry pamphlets to place
needless to name. In the age OF Rousseau man
might have gone far without annoying other
people Blu. at the of the Union, a Scot who
started circulating library in Edinburgh gave
his neighbors the impression that a flood or
atheism was about to be let loose upon the
land When the same man defended dancing
and play-acting and went TO the extreme or
building theatre in a town where such thing
was looked on as no better than a synagogue OF
Satan, he almost brought about his own ruin.
This business OF freethinking Is largely matter
OF chronology. There are clergymen nowadays
who outdo Paine's Age OF Reason and yetdoso
with reverence to which Paine was stranger.
His cheap and haphaZard criticism has Deeh re-
placed by criticism which Is at least scientihc'
Mr. Salt points out that the world has come
around TO Sheey's way Of thinking In sociai
science. and one might make a very plausible
argument TO prove that without Allan ramsay
tho Scottish philosophy Of common-sense which
nourished for two generations after MS 'i"e
would never have come into being
On the other hand. Ramsay never set up es
preacher or righteousness He simply had his
gar
use his own expression. 1t were TO be wlshe1
that Shelley also could have taken himself some
whut less seriously The melancholy certainty
that the world would never g right until nc hao
sacrificed himself for IT made him old before ne
was out Of his youth. and II did not hasten by
one m ,nent the advent Of the Socialism which
he desired From his point - View he had per-
feet right TO do all the things tina; he did. But
ne had no right 10 expect gratitude or good
will and he should not have felt gloomy whcn
these were withheld II he enjoyed his dehant
attitude toward the conservatism of his time II
Il was satisfaction to him 10 be wretched' then
modern eympathy FOR him Is misplaced 1t would
be absurd for any one now 10 say that Sheliey
failed I'm the task which his genius set for him.
Something Ike that used to be said with brutal
violence The trouble IS now that some people
wish 20 make him out wholly an object OF pity,
while others would have him as an object OF
reverential worship About all that an indirer-
ent person manages to gather from the dispute IL
that OF all po-,e. Shelley was the one whose bi-
ography has least 10 do with his works. IL one
cannot understand the latte- without the FORMER,
and even without the aid Of n Shelley society,
then one cannot understand them at all. \ lit
tie difference In temperament might have enabled
Shelley 10 enjoy his battles with prejudice as
III L.. i,,,, tapt igh
not less Irritating conflicts 1t not the bat
ties that made him melancholy. but his own tenn
per- and temper Is something that must be borne
with long lie lasts
II ls no; decided even yet that the movement
which Shelley predicted and desired is Of
progress No two people are fully agreed as TO
the virtue OF democracy and social equality and
the new ideas In religion. All that can be said s
that Shelley with the presclence Of genius. fore
what TO be. His own influence is still a
potent one In dra wing the world along the way
which he marked out. and there Is no sign that 1t
will be lcss potent for ages to come. In field
purely literary II can be said that the power OF
genial. dappcr Allan Ramsay ie also still TO be
felt His Gentle Shepherd made an epoch II
IS not too much 70 say that the whole study Of
common He. OF tradition and popular custom. OF
folklore and fOksong dates from the time when
Ramsay overthrew the artlnce OF his predeces-
sors relcgated the smirklng shepherds and paint
ed shepherdtt'-es OF drawing room poets to OBJ
lvion. and turned to the human life that he knew
for poetic inspiration. IT was a positive revela-
tlon to his contemporaries that the facts Of their
own experience could be made beautiful This
revelation Is not exhausted yet. When II is un-
derstood there will be no such thing as the So
called modern realism" Mr.. Salts book Is IL
oil Gpa raj ~ shpils vhi 10
Mr. Smcaton's book is favorable indication OF
the qualities OF the series to which 1t belongs