Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-06-13
FUSS ABOUT LITERATURE.

In the Atlantic Monthly for June, Mr..
Henry Childs MeT~fn has an article. on
/ Being Civilized Too Much" in which he
I depiores the ~6ecadsnce IN politics and lit
eraiure that Is resulting from our over
sophisticatiou." He calls attention TO
many things which are true. but not at
all alarming. There is a tendency toward
this kind o. pessimistic essay writing now
sdays that is harmless and amusing. hut
Il IS doing some good, for by its mustra-
tons. 4 not otherwise. 81 IS sticking pins
into the current literary bubbles How
ever. these same bubbles are innocent
things OF very short lives. and We doubt
whether their destruction Is worth the
chase. But in the course OF his remarks,
Mr.. Mervin makes some statements which
are not true. For instance: 1T is re-
msrkahle that the times in which
the greatest works have been produced
were precisely those in which the least
fuss was made over literature or over
those who produced IT," His only refer
enoe. for proof OF this declaration. is
Shakespeare. One can make most any kin
OF a statement about Shakespeare or his
works and prove It TO his own satisfaction,
but this enc is questionable.
In making comparisons of this kind II
is necessary TO bear in mind the diTeren,
conditions which surrounded the literary
workers OF other times than ours. II less
fuss was made over literature a hundred,
or two hundred, or three hundred, years
ago than now. Il was probably because
there was less opportunity 10 make one.
People said then they print now.
The fuss was probably just as great. II not
so general. Even the meager record that
has come to US IN the form Of literary his
tory relates much that would refute Mr..
Merwin's statement. 1t IS a matter OF
tradition. at least. II not OF history, that
Sh~akespeares work received In its own
time about all the recognition that was
beth discovered Falstar about as soon as
he was created and Immediately advised
or commanded the bard to portray the fat
knight in love. which he did. in q remark
ably brief period OF time. in The Merry
Wives of Windsor" This occurred three
hundred years ago and OF the men who
were engaged in literature at tina time we
have preserved to us the work Of more
than a score-probably two score. Mr..
Merwin says that when literature is al a
low ebb, the talk made about II and the
number OF persons who are busy with It
in one way and another are always vastly
increased" Yet. three centuries after a
time when books were the only avenues OF
literary expression, when the greatest Gre
alive work in literature was being pro-
duced, we lave the record Of a host Of
lesser lights who bore such names as
spenser, Bacon, Jonson. Raleigh. Marlowe.
Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher. There
must have been enough talk about letters
In those days TO constitute a very re-
spectacle fuss.
If We so back only a hundred years and
then look over the birth record Of the last
quarter of the previous century. We find
a gOodly company which contained. among
others. Wordsworth. Scott. Coleridge,
Southey, Lamb. Hazlitt, Moore, Hunt. De-
Quincy, Byron, Lander, Shelley, Keats
and Carlyle. There was the material for a
- @NFN AtNNN dAtu the luSE
was duly had when these men and their
followers became old enough TO make Il.
Then, again. when these men were being
born, Burns was being Iionized. II less
fuss had been made about him and his
work. he would have been a greater poet
and a better man.
Mr.. Merwiu also remarks that our over
sophistication-this undue predominance of
the intellect-has destroyed the value OF
our criticism: that the critic of to-day, in
stead Of asking himself whether or not
a work gives him pleasure or pain. asks
whether or not he ought to like II and
approve Of it. If our DISQUALIFICATION
has brought about this result, then the
signs Of the times are very encouraginE.
Surely no one would be willing to spend
much energy In maintaining the position
that IL Is an indication of a higher state
Of either mental or moral attainment 10
be satisfied with mere pleasure or pain
rather than earnestly TO be seeking for
principles and causes. This admitted at
tempt to analyze all sorts of productions
is an indication of a desire to discriminate |
and select that which is fitted to afford
higher pleasure-to secure a few grains OF
gold from the great deposit of modern |
thought-streams. The very fact tina the
attempt TO discriminate is carried on So I