New-York tribune., 1900-04-15

beyond its deserts He simply realizes that it is
important for some one to protest against
faulty that is likely to do damage. He hopes
to the author from the cOnceit that
measured euogy is apt 10 cngender. He hopes
also to restore its balance to the public mind.
At Il time when thOugntleSs guides urging
people to run after false gods. the highest duty
of the critic is to see that the light on the true
altar burns its brightest
Mr.. Frank Ritchie, writing in 'Longmans,"
exhibits touching solicitude for the Individual
reader Of these intensely studious days The
popular writer who complies Il list of The
Hundred Best Books" is to MIN a shape of
dread. He has discovered that several eminent
men have in times past gone wrong in their
pronounccments on other writer's, and this
seems To him to confirm the notion that the
exercise of private Judgment SHOULD not be
curtailed Let us not shrink he SAYS from
forming our own opinion about n new book
Excellent advice this is of course but there is
something pathetic about this defence of the
individual Mr. Ritche means so we'll He is
bliSsfully unaware of the fact that it is lust
this impatience with the standards slowly
erected by time that does more than almost
anything else to ObStruct the development of
good critical ideas among the readers of the
world. Mr. Ritchie without meaning TO ONLY
fosters that destructive theory which his fellow
cOuntryman, Mr.. c. II. Shorter canddly avows
when he remarks i'll The Sphere that 1T gives
us Individuality for all of to have our little |
eccentrcities of literary taste" These eccen- |
trlcltleS, kept III their place do little harm But |
they become in the last degree pernicous when |
they are exploited in the spirit advocated by |
Mr. Ritche, when they are adopted as virtues |
IN revolt against the standards which wisdom
tries to keep in the foreground Neither Mr. |
Richie nor Mr.. Shorter probably means to pit |
mere whim against the opinions of the masters |
But that is what they come dangerously near to
lncucating when they fout so gaylv the au-
thoritics that have been tested by time
The hypothesis that Shakespcarcs intimate
knowledge of legal phrascology sprang from
early training i'll the law has moved "Urbanus
Sylvan. iii The Cornhill Magazine" to make
Il valuable suggestion. Il hazard the opinion"
he says, that half years apprenticeship in a
lawyers office would be admirable training for
most young literary aspir1nts. They would be
given certain provisions 10 express, and they
would by practice come to he able to EXPRESS
them so that 10 loophoe of escape should remain
for the person whom they are to bind Such
practice would bring. of course precision and
it would also bring feasibility" Some cold
water Is thrown on this proposition bv the fact
mat III England there is nothing c0mmoDer
than the literary man who has been trained rs
a lawyer and there are good many things
commoner than the author who writes with
precision. But without inlidpity to the conyic-
tion tlat every good writer. whether in prose or
verse, Is born. not made. we may recognizes in
"trbanuS SWANS idea a positive merit
There i material out of which it is impos-
Slble to make silk purse. There is a type of
writing man out of which it is impossible to
make competent author But disciplinr and
again discipline ana still again discipline is to
even the greatest genius one of the indisnrns-
able factors in artistic growth. 1t is the one
thing that is nowadays least thought of. least
cultivated, least honored. Therefore every word ,
said in its favor is useful word Even though
it be advanced, as by "Urbanus Sylvan" with