New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-03-18


the sapient solemnities of the writer's who think
that, on the whole. there is no place like the
gutter.
A reviewer in THE AthenRum' makes some
observations his plight which should inter
est not only other reviewers (whOse hearts
bound to throb in sympathetic response) but
the general reader. His duty in the matter of
books of poetry says this suffering gentle
man, is very hard 1T seems a harsh and cruel
act to write unpleas truths about verse
which obviously delights its author. Yet
what is one to do? Can one write what is called
a kind notice of a book which, as literature
is quite wOrthlessy 1t is a painful dilemma.
indeed But sometimes there are consultations.
One of them, taken by the plaintive writer of
the remarks just quoted, has touch of humor
He is lucky enough to find. in the very book
with which he is trying to deal amiably, these
helpful lines:
Your verses fret my feelings raw
Like rasping Of rusty saw
Or ritting of a hard slate pencil
Or grltting of a house utenSil-
God help the fools who urge thy browning
Whom wiser folk would help in drowning!
But the usual consolation is that the poet him
self will not believe the plain verdict that his
work is not poetry at ALL" This must remain,
after all, the reviewers best comfort in the per
Torrance of his unpleasant duty. He suffers
himself, doubt far more than the poet to
whom he tells the truth.
The owner of the prOOfShects of 'Rcdgaunt-
let" Mr. David MacRitchie, describes them in
'Longman's Magazine" giving some interesting
examples Of SCOTS literary method But the
best part o. the article comes in the writer's
summing-up what we learn from these proof
sheets, he declares, is that SCOTS literary
method hardly gave him Il moments thought
And if here and there there are tokens of reck-
leSSneSS and haste in composition. these ONLY
throw into greater prominence the fact that the
finest passages had received no closer attention
but were also the unstudied, spontaneous utter
anceS of one who was by right of birth Il prince
among the writer's of romance" The moral of
this lies, of course, in the application OF it,
SCOTS "recklessness and haste in composition"
should cause man to stop polishing his style
unless he is another Scott but it should do
something toward exposing that worst falacy
of the day, that with style" You can do any
thing. The fact that with style alone YOU
can do nothing at all ought to be obvious, but
contrary opinion lies at the bottom of noun
tains of trash which we see printed and pub
lished every year. Painters do not suffer as
often they once did from the silly incubus
of art for arts sake but authors carry the
burden everywhere at this epoch 1t does them
infinite harm, and brings endless annoyance to
the reading public. There is no more pernicious
agency at work than that which teaches every
one the nominally precious art of writing a
toleraby clear sentence. TO countless seekers
after fame the capacity TO turn out a pretty
paragraph is plain summons to THE literary
life. II is well for them to he reminded of
Scott and of how "Out Of the abundance of his
heart his mouth spoke" 1t may put Il certain
DrOfta BILE idea into their heads