New-York tribune., 1898-01-23
2.ew91ork Gribnne
FOR TIE WEEK ENDING JAN. %, 1898.
ILLUSTRATED sUPPLEMEN


The conclusion of the first competition, AS it
may fairly be called. which the London "Acad
envy started under the gllise of campaign Tor
an Academy of Letters may well cause the
irrcvorcnt to chucklc. We told you so, they
may observe, meaning that they ioresaw All
along that any such thing as IN Academy Wouio
prove 10 be out Of place i'll England, ana that ltS
projectors would be driven TO awards utterly
lacking in serious significance. The men OF let
tiers who were asked TO settle the matter or
course disagreed. and The Academy itself
made the decision, giving Mr.. stephen Phillips
the prize of 100 guincas for his new DOCK ol
poems and Mr.. William Ernest Henley the prize
of 20 guincas for his recent essay on Burns. we
give a taste of Mr. Phlllipss quality at the head
of this column. He is pleasing but not at all
brilliant poet. Mr.. Henley iL. his essay on
Burns, as in all his other writings, is brilliant
but not wholly pleasing. Neither of the awards
implies more than that two fairly interesting
productions Of the year 1SJI are ht TO be
Crowned" in the opinion of the quite unin-
spired editors of a periodical that is far from
being in the forefront of contemporary criticism.
Not any Of the pancgyriSts Of IIeinc, writing
at this time aprOpos of the centenary or his
birth seem to have had the courage to point
ont the curious lack Of regard for his work and
fame shown in the present anti-Semitic rage OF
Paris The Drcyfus reminds us that II
IIcine ever had any influence with his adopted
countrymcn il was only in circles of an artistic
or literary character. The people in general ap-
parcntly have no inclination 10 waste their time
Oh the value TO literature or life Of any particu-
lar jew in history When their passions are
aroused literature is thrown overheard, ana
probably were lIcine living to-day he would
share in the effects Of that movement which the
Dreylus trouble has revived and accelerated.
Mr. Arthur Symons writing in a vein Of high
admiration for the late Hubert Cracien,horpe,
the author # some exceptionally r(pulsiye stud
les in realism" calls him with JUNCTION an ''im-
personal artist and then goes on to present
him as tacitly saying to the reader: II am going
TO try 10 show you some Of the things | have
seen in fe pitlable things in whose sOrrowS
have >orrowcd." This uncOnsciously hits off the
sillcs most fatuous trait Of the 'realist" Of to-
day He is impersonal, evil things have none
but "a cold intellectual" attraction for him, yet
he pra!cs about how he has "sorrowed" in those
scientifically studied sorrows. and he asks you
to sorrow with him. Let the merely clean and
healthy novelist attempt to cxtort your sorrow
by the revelation of his own sympathy simul-
tancouSy with the prcsentmcnt Of the object OF
It, and your "impersOnal' artist raises howl Of
Sentiment Grass idcalism. ignorance Of the true
character Of art" and on. But he may be rs
scornful as he likes. The world will continue to
admire the authors who mix human feeling
with the narration of human sorrows and to IL
La. win f1 ~ ~
emotion in a bottle Of alcohol, as though it were
an anatomical specimen, he can convince intel
Ugcnt people that he knows more about it than
anybody else.
.i,.,,,, tl,,t bttnl lrnI