The record-union., 1897-03-07

ber, 1896, we find nine new books
named, five of them by men, and four
by women; not a bad proportion. con-
sidering that men have centuries of
training and scholarship behind them.
and women centuries of limitation and
oppression. The readers of these same
books will, 1 doubt not, be as ten
women to one man.
The love of learning is not a sex
question at all, any more than is the
yearning after the principles of liberty
and eternal justice.
Personally 1 believe in the clearer
spiritual perceptions and the higher
mental organization of woman, and
therein lies my hope of the future Of
the race; but no less do believe in
and trust the strength, the power of
logical investigation, and the wisdom
of good men, and 1 will not measure
either against the other, for both are
alike essential in the great harmony of
the worlds redemption
That popular taste is not the finest
taste hardly calls for contradiction, -
declares Alice Wellington Rollins of
Bronxville. 1T is as If one should
assert with vehemence the average
person is not an exceptional person.
Of course not But that popular taste
in literature is largely followed by wo-
men is a credit to woman. She turns
for recreation or stimulus far oftener
than men to literature of some kind
The man goes to a club, or pipe, or is
often justifiably weary enough to care
for nothing but a nap on the sofa. The
woman who from natural inability can
not appreciate the finest work of cul-
ture is not to blame for seeking refuge
in something which is by no means
necessarily bad because 1T is not the
best; nor is she anything but praise
worthy who, under circumstances for
which she is not responsible, turns
either from poverty of purse or mind to
literature, which is at least simple and
often intolerable to her more cultured
sister. The error of the Scotch pro-
fessor is in seeming to assert that
every man has good taste and that no
woman has any.
Il may call his attention to four
points:
i. The average woman of course is
not an exceptional woman, any more
than the average man is ever an ex-
ceptional man.
-. If il is the average woman who
does more to make popular opinion Of
literature than the average man, it is
not because he has better taste, but
because he hasn't any in the matter in
question. All things are relative; if
you find a chrome on walls where there
have previously been engravings, you
may bemoan the degeneracy of taste;
but if you find a chrome where previ-
ously there was nothing, you may well
come the dawn of taste at least for
color and form. If the average wo-
man has learned to like popular lit
erature, she is at least a step beyond
the average man whose taste is lin
tied to beer or tobacco, or the eompar-
ative merits of a lounge or an easy
chair. OF course, in this / am infer
ring that the professor does not mean
bad literature by popular literature but
merely literature that is not the high
est.
%. 1t is by no means a disgrace to
contribute either to the existence or
the appreciation Of popular literature
L think it was the fastidious Matthew
Arnold who, when am admirer told
him with sorrow that pirated edition
of his work was selling for two cents
in America, replied cheerfully, oh, but
/ like TO be two-cented, Henry James
has devoted an entire exquisite story
to the touching effort Of a great liter
airy artist to become popular con-
stantly grieved that he could never pro-
duce anything but an abject master
piece that fairly bristled with cul-
ture.'
Il. If the average woman creates
and follows popular opinion the crit
ical Judgment which notes, appreciates
ard calls attention to the creations of
the finest literary taste is far more
widely governed by women than our
professor seems to be aware. The habit
which the French have unlearned and
the English are unlearning of having
critical work unsigned has deprived
woman of much that is their due. In
What l may call the city that I know
best an immense amount of the criti-
cal work accepted as in the finest
taste is done by women, though the
credit goes all to the journals in which
1T appears, and it is generally assumed
when thought of personally at all, to
have been done by a man. New York
Tribune.