The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-09-12

are the same exhausted in magnifying
or characterizing the greatest writer's.
The intellectual torpfdity, the moral
gangrene, the low standards of judg-
ment, the enormous appetite for pru-
ent, rotten stories, filled with false
views OF life, foul1y salacious, over
running with sensation and clap
trap, are simply appalling. Even an
old writer like Henry James has fallen
into the putrid muckheap and his last
story is of the worst. Most OF the
writer's are consuming time in produc-
ing trifes, trash or worse than trash
II we may judge from book notices
many Of the nofnels that are vigorous.
ingenious and well wrought are repel-
liant or impure. This is the period OF
hysteria, OF nausea, Of disease, OF
idolitry. of icipidity, of dilettanteiszn,
of fads and follies. 1t is a period of
lax views of low ideals, of meretricious
culture of poor standards Of right, Of
justice, of honor, of morality. Some
time ago a writer Of c~leverness said in
the New York Independent of the true
literary conditions: y
cit Is the age of bric-a-brac in art, OF
ceremonies, and entertainments in re-
ligion and of dress in society. Scholars
gossip in clubs, instead of debate in
lyceums, and college students are
known chiefly as football players. No
new PHILOSOPHERS have been conceived
in this age, no great poems have ap-
peared or remarkable adventures. 1t
is an age of mediocrity, in which many
come forward in every department, but
none are conspicuous. The whole
world has been recently convulsed over
a wedding. A superficial book on Bo-
hemianism has made the greatest sue
cess in literature. The principal inter-
est in politics lis an easy way to pay
debts. Socialism is as deep as the pub
Lie can see into government. Claptrap
interests men, and public officials are
capitalists instead of statesmen"
The outlook of course to the mate
rial eye is hopeful and engaging. 1t
sees piles of ingots and grasps at end
less town lots. But decadence in liter
ature is visible every where. The
writer's of books, as a class, give far
more attention to the outward express
sion than ito inward impression-to the
power and grace and purity of thought.
They decorate their sentences and fur
bish with intense assiduity. They seek
the mere gift of expression, the garb for
the description. To be master Of the
most delicate art, to be able to refine
and polish to great perfection-like Pa
ter, Watts and others, is what the mos.
pretentiouS writers aim at. In fact
the body of thought is far below the
high standards of the great writers in
the rich, prolific past who won high and
deserved fame. To be rich, fertile, ia
cile, robust in thought is not the COW
eted end. It is to be dainty, apt in
linguistic lore, finished in rhetorical
illigree that the writer's seek as an end
to praise and ducats. The same acute
writer says:
"But when an age is refining, it is
usually doing little else. The people
are polishing what they forged in the
last generation. 1t gives fewer thoughts
to the world than it restates. BY cor-
recting and identifying the Wig
it's characteristic work. Life is not
as serious as it was thirty years ago.
Social life is about the highest problem
we are considering. Men need to be
recalled to the vigorous. The strug-
giles OF life must be entered to produce
a strong people. The ablest minds are
largely engaged in amusing the peo-
pie. The drama is the chief department
that prospers; and the greatest thing
nov seen is an opera or pageant. We
are celebrating great deeds instead Of
doing Them
Compare the best mental products Of
the past ten years with the rich fruit
age from 1900 to 1850, and behold the
tremendous contrast. It is not remote
ly comparable to the Elizabethan Pc
riOd.