The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-09

authors thus far has been precisely this.
| They have been ahead of their time. and
sometimes they have not known 1t. Their
| intuitions have run contrary to those OF
| their friends and neighbors. In the slim
| uiating and ever-changing life of new
| country new ideas develop rapidly, the
| old order changes. and people in general
come to point where they do not know
| what to believe. Outspoken books are
| feared; compromising books are welcom-
| ed and conventional books Rugged with
relief. That is the condition OF things IN
| this country Just now. The American au-
| thor has not made up his mind, any more
than the American people have. how lar
| he wants to depart from Old World ira
ditions. how much he wants to keep OF
Anglo-Saxon convention and how much he
would like to borrow from France, Ger
| many, Russia, Norway, and other coun-
| tries Of whose literature he has mad
| taste. Perhaps he has dipped into orien-
| tai thought and is inclined to THINK that
| that philosophy is superior 10 the theories
of Europe regarding the universe ms
public is in an equally nixed-up condition.
Consequently the only form OF literature
which has been distinctly developed IN
| this country thus far is what we call the
! realistic, which is really the descriptive,
and which deals only with the things Oh
which people are at present sure. 1t has
to do with the simple life OF humanity,
and anybody can understand it,
Another thing which makes it rather
hard for the American author, ana, IN
fact for any author of the present day, is
the tendency of human nature TO mix up
religious truths and social laws. There Is
a class of people well represented by the
village woman in one of Miss wilkins sto-
ries, who said that she would have nothing
H. anGff g
ter would only have a pretty new bonnet
and go to church like other folks The
church and the bonnet were of about equa /
Importance in her mind. With the ex-
pandng and developing thought OF the
present time has come disposition to go
deeper than the surface, and recognize the
fact of human brotherhood, TO be interest
ed in human beings as such, aside from
their position in society, their clothes, or
their traditions. The Chinese wall OF lit
erature is breaking down, and 1t Is posi-
BILE to make hero out Of almost anybody.
This is good, and II indicates that Col
den Age of the worlds literature is COM
ing, and coming in America. We
have here all traditions, all races,
all peoples, and the most pict-
uresque contrasts in worldly condl-
tions Our literature may be gathered
from writer's of every race as we'll as
every part of the country. and 1t ought to
be. We are beginning to recognize the
fact that there can be 10 settled stan
dards except those which all have helped
to make. that no man can create anothers
point of view or even know what 1t is
without intimate acquaintance and SYM
pathy.
All these things go to prove that when
American thought becomes free enough,
and the American outlook broad enough.
for us to develop new standards and ways
OF looking at things-as We have already
done to some extent-we shall have a lit
erature of a new magnifcence, as different
from that of England as English writers
Of the Victorian age were from those who
went before. But first absolute independ-
ence must be granted to the writer, and
he himself must seek to do what has not
always, up to the present time, been sough,
in literature; he must seek to tell the
truth. This phrase is used not in its lit
eral sense, but in the broader meaning
which involves all imagination as well as
observation and memory. The intuitive
perceptions of human relations must be
true and Just; and the picturing OF
character devoid of all preju-
dice. No theory can be exploited and
no statements made, in the perfect novel,
which are not In accordance with the broad
underlying principles OF human existence.
The world has hitherto been SO blinded by
prejudice, tradition, and superstition that
il has not found out much about these. The
instinct of the imaginative writer has re-
fused sometimes to be hampered, and has
made a true picture despite the influences
OF the age in which he lived When this
Instinct is left to work Itself out without
obstacle, when the writer is free. there
Is no knowing what advances may not be
-, Il
achieving OF independence will be like the
assertion OF the rights of man. Then we
shall have the true realism. of which-ihe
immense amount Of bookmaking which has
taken place in the last quarter OF a centu-
~ is only the beginning.