New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-25
SCOTCH BIOGRAPHIES.
A ROsEATE PICTURE OF AN ATRABIL1oUs
NOVELIST.
TOBIAS sMOLIETT. BY Loliphant smeat0n.
Famous Scots ScriesD Duodecimo, PIP. 100
Charles SCrbnerS Sons

TOBIAS SMOLLETT BY 1Oliphant Smeat on
Famous Scots ScriesD Duodeclino, PIP 100
Charles Scrbners Sons.
THOMAS CHALMERS BY W. Garden Blake.
Famous Scots Series) Duodtcliho' PIP wv
Charles Scrbner's sons
Not only was Smonett a capital stoIyteller,
he was-and this is something OF claim to dis
tinction-an unstinted grumbler. To be sure,
in the inclusiveness Of his objurgations he has
been surpassed by Schopenhauer; In the relent-
lessness and pcturesqueness OF Ills details by
Carlvle: but his arm never tired of holding the
bludgeon. and its aim was never ambiguous
He grumbIed at everything. In coarse, realistic
strokes he satirized the abuses in His Majesty s
Navy; in language not much better than his
subject he caricatured the gross customs or
London street hawliers and Edinburgh house
holders Under his pen. Bath, the fashionable
resort of his day, becomes place abhorrent TO
the nostrils One Is tempted at times to admire
the audacity with which the impoverished ply
scian in search of a livelihood, affronted, for
the mere exercise Of his spleen, his patients, his
booksellers and his possible patrons among the
Cabinet Ministers. There is much In the ex-
travagances Of this Scotch Thersites to satisfy
ones sense OF humor. 1t takes man With
positive gift for abuse to characterize the Pan
theon as "a huge cockpit open at the top and
the AlDs as frosted sugar" Unlimited abuse
is perhaps better than no abuse at ALL on the
one hand. Smoett's letters Of travel have not
impaired the frosting Of the Alps; on the other
his novels have unduestionably had some infiu-
ence in the improvement OF His Majestys SER
vice" and may even have had a share in maxi
ing Ednburgh's streets more wholesome and
Londons purveyors more cle1nly. HIS satire,
brutal as 1t was. has been measurably justified
bv events But with all his usefulness Smollett
nF oicft, Tha fruf
the practice Of most biographers TO the con-
trary Observation-Disclosures better be spoken:
he was an exuberant scold.
This II should be said, not the View Of his
latest biographer Mr.. Ollphant smeaton makes
n distinction between "shortness OF temper" and
the desire to give less intellectually nimble COM
panions a FLIP up in the mental race, that they
NAV not lag so far behind as to make intercourse
q martyrdom." When sees Smollett falling
foul OF his most disinterested benefactors this
distinction seems over nice. When one sees him
respond with merely personal abuse to the plaus-
IDLE arguments Of so clever antagonist as
Joh1 Wilkes the distinction seems irrelevant.
Had his criticisms Of life been the unguarded ut
terances Of a sensitive nature whose ideals were
affronted by the banalities OF the world. he
would sometimes have criticised his own work
az falling short Of those ideals but In regard TO
his own work he compacent. II Is easier
to explain his datrlbes as the outbursts OF
man baked I'm his ambitions by the limitations
Of his own genius. He was forever falling TO get
what he was after. and, In language which often
exaggerated his feelings was forever resentlng
the deprivation. 1t is no small element OF a
skilful biographer's art that he preserve IN
proper proportions his heros relative position
in the world No reader should be asked To dis
tort his whole notion OF an epoch for the sake OF
magnifying for the nonce the merits OF
one man. After many such distortions history
loses what little gertrude 1t has; It becomes u
mass OF uncorrelatcd material ready to take any
shape which the exigencles OF each new biogra-
pher may give 10 It. This simple principle Mr..
Smeaton frequently violates. Much Of the praise
he awards 10 Smoett involves injustice to more
notable contemporaries In a casual sentence
which perhaps should not he taken very seri
ously. he invites comparison between Smollett
certainly not Of the first rank among story-tel-
lers. and DR.. Johnson, the most prominent lit
erary man OF his age. In more measured Ian
guage, he contrasts what he calls THE prurient
puerities Of 'Tristram Shandy' and Flelding's
tedious untwistings OF motives with Smolletts