New-York tribune., 1900-10-07
Gbe NenIllorBs gribaaae.
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER Z, 1900.

ample: "At the root OF all great poetry there
is come form or other of strenuous and i'm
FASHIONED optimism, some heightened sense of
the value and Importance of existence" This,
to-day, is missing Wonderful wonderful! 1t
is not surprising that Mr.. w. e. Henley, hold
ing this precious pronOuncement up before him
as though at the end of a pair of tOngs feels
moved to ribaldry. For his part he thinks
that .the reason that there is no great poetry
on tap just now is that there are great
poets" and though the rarest thing in the world
is to find Mr.. Henley saying anything with
which it is possible to agree, this particular
judgment of his has something in it. When,
we wonder. will sapient oraces cease to ask
questions about the one phenomenon in ltera-
ture that lies utterly beyond our ken? "Others
abide question, thou art free" said Matthew
Arnold. He said it of Shakespeare, but it
applies to every great poet. TO ask why the
modern poet so often prints rubbish is Iegiti-
mate enough. There ought really to be some
discoverable reason for the publication of so
much ineffable fatuity. But to make inquiries
touching the advent of the next "great poet"
as though he could be posted as the inevitable
product of a period" prophesied like a
comet atmospherical disturbance, is to
put human intelligence to puerile uses.
The appraisal of literature by rule OF thumb
is of course, abominable, but there is entertain
ment, nevertheless, in the elaborate statistical
experiment which Sir Walter Besant has re-
Gently made in respect to contemporary fiction.
Surveying the novels of 1899, he has divided
them into four classes. The first embraces
those authors "who are in constant demand,
whose works editors gladly publish as serials
and publishers gladly welcome, and whose cir
culatiOn may be reckoned by thousands These
favored mOrtals are few. Sir Walter Besant
has been able to discover only twenty-five of
them. The nOvelists of the next lower class,
who have attained a respectable vogue" num-
Der ninety-tWO. The third class, made up of
nOvelStS fairly readable" but of no great i'm
portance, are somewhat less numerous; there
are seyenty-two of the guild. Finally, of the
aspirantS to fame who have succeeded in get
ting themselves printed but have otherwise
gained nothing from their cOuntrymen, Sir
Walter has counted an appalling company.
There are no fewer than 99S of these poor
creatures. In this conclusion we are asked to
observe 1.-The real tragedy of the calling" We
refuse to shed a single tear. A band of in
cOmpetents nearly one thousand strong is de-
plOrable, no doubt, but, on the other hand, is
not the first class in Sir Walter Besant's scheme
rather OYercr0wded? Are not twenty-five nov
eliSts lin constant demand" good many more
than we have any right to expect? Indeed we
are less sanguine than the amable novelist and
man of letters who has drawn up this
schedule One really capable novelist a year
would be good measure
The announcement that Mr.. KipIng has re-
ceiyed nearly $4,000 for the serial rights of his
new story, kim of the Rishti" and the
prophecy that the sales of the work in book
n aSt
create a feeling of awe in some devoted breasts.
but il Nnnld he cnmfnriinr if cn11Id ho foIt