The times., 1901-03-10

be induced to state their purposes square
ly in undecorative treetises But / confess
that the treatises would not be read. The
specialism of modern science has also in
vaded fiction, and some authors find a
county, or parish. wide enough for the
work OF a lifetime. The district has its
dialect, and who can reprove it when
spoken by the creatures Of Mr.. Barrie and
Mr. Crockett? This kind of fiction is the
result of our desire TO learn Through nov
els) about the lives of all sorts and con-
ditions OF men. Enfin, the whole scope
of mortal existence is now the farrago
lbelli of the noyelists, who range from
prehistoric man to Bethnal Green; from
Thrums to Central Africa There is not
the same eagerness to read history. which
James IL regarded as more instructive
and quite as abusing" My heart is here
with King James, and / confess to gaining
more entertainment from Carlyle's Fred
erick the Great" than from most novels.
The earlier historians, from Scott TO
Carlyle, Macaulay, and Froude, placed
the human interest in the first rank. They
conceived that history had to do with hu-
man beings of passions, caprices, moods.
loves, and hates, dwelling in a world of
interesting costumes, arms architecture,
ideas, and beliefs. Thus Carlyle, with
much research, created his Cromwell or
his Frederick, as Scott created his Queen
Mary, his Louis XI, his James VI, or his
Cromwell in Woodstock, who is not too
remote from CarlyleS. For these rea-
sons Scott, FrOude, Carlyle, and Macau-
lay really are amusing as well as in
structive historians. When institutions
and constitutions had to be described
they were placed in separate compart-
ments, as in the works of Hallam and
Bishop Stubbs. Historians studied MSS,
of course, but it was not held that only
the imprinted was the valuable, that a
new survey of known matter was abso-
lutely valueless.
In the end of the century We have his
tory which is not 'as interesting as
novel; dixie that Of Prescott, Motley,
Froude and MacaulayJ, but very far from
gay Novelty of research is quite just
~, insisted upon Though research is as
old as Hemingburgh and was much ad-
vanced by GibDon, Carter. Rymer, Wal
pole, Tytler and so on till, by a natural
error, every scrap won from a wilderness
of charters is valued beyond its deserts.
The human interest is frowned upon;
movements of forces, political and sociai,
are treated in preference to personal
character and adventure. Meticulous ac-
curacy is insisted upon, till nervous stu
dents are actually afraid TO publish. Even
Mommsen, greatest OF original students,
is regarded as frivolous, even Curtius as
popular" by the modern school It is
natural to man to run into these excesses
of reaction. Froude is not often accurate,
Macaulay has prejudices, even Mr.. Free
man was not sound about knights Fees
and about a certain palisade. Now the
public does not care about knights Fees
or about the Manor, much; nor even about
the obscure early history of civic insti-
tutions In fact, even references to au-
thorities frighten away part of the pub
lie, whose timidity l do not applaud. The
results of our frivolity and of the pOrten-
tous gravity of some modern historians
is that, since Mr.. Green scarcely any
writer of history is read except for exam
nations. AS long as historians declare
(often with perfect TRUTH that their own
works are not literature, but something
far more awful and solemn, namely
science, history must be unpopular. But
we are only waiting for a man of genius
as accurate as the most meticulous and
as interesting as the agreeaDiy irreSpOn-
sible FrOude. OF science l am not 10 treat,
so / am dispensed from remarks on our
tain that in collecting and printing and
calendaring documents the age in all
countries has shown praiSeWorJhy indus
try, while Mr.. Parkman in America, like
our mid-century historians, was not too
scientific To be readable.
OF theology, except when recommended
by the art of a Newman or a JOWett,
nothing is here to be said though | could
cheerfully say a good deal especially
about Biblical criticism. But that is sci
ence, though scarcely of the sort Of sci
ence which has been defined as organized
commOn-SenSe. The poetry of the late
century in England boasts the names OF
Rossetti William Morris. Matthew Ar
mold, and Mr.. Swinburne. It Is tinged, in
the former, with medievaliSm, deriving
from the Italians and Chaucer; while in
Mr. Swinburne, every conceivable literary
influence, from the Greeks to Baudelaire,
from the EiiZabethans TO Victor Hugo,
makes itself abundantly conspicuous.
These poets. younger than Matthew Ar
mold are not much Influenced by Words
worth, though by Shelley Mr.. Swinburne
was influenced. On the other hand. Mr..
Arnold was modern, academic, hetero-
doX Wordsworth, and often truly de-
lightful poet.
He stood much aloof from the contem-
porarv literature of his day, and his let
ters prove that he was no ferVent adj
mirer even of TennysOn or Browning. His
own poetry has been TO many, as to my
self, full of delightful passages, whether
he wrote of the oxford countryside or of
Wordsworth's hills. of the shOrn and
parceled Oxus." or of the moaning sea
that SophocieS long ago heard as he heard
it on Dover beach He was our great
est modern elegiac poet; master of the
Dirge. OF the living again. no criticism
can be offered; we only note the names,
and real if very various merits, of Mr..
Robert Bridges. Mr.. Watson, Mr DAVID
SON Mr. DObSOn, Mr. Benson, Mr.. ThOmp
son, Mr. Henley, Mr.. GOsse, Mr. Stephen
Phillips, Mrs. Marriott Watson, Mrs. Mey-
nell. Mr.. kipling, "a nest OF singing
birds 1t would be impertinent, and, IN
deed. perilous TO draw iuvidious distinc-
tions" as the Undergraduate said about
the major and minor prophets nor Is II
for this century 10 sift the poetic sheep
from the goats who, IN an age that reads
little poetry, are greatly guilty of much
verse.
The unassuming and decried art of criti-
Cism remains Essays are OF no one age,
there are similar excelencies IN every
good essayist since MOntaigne. We have
no Hazlitt. Lamb. or Leigh Hunt, but we
had Mr.. Stephenson and Mr.. Pater. so un-
like in all but conscious interest in style,
and "Reminiscences OF the best models. IN
deed essay writing is almost an unprac-
ticed art as the public has no use for 1t.
anv more than for the letter III on the
Sandwich boards. A fairly bad novelist
can live, to an appallingly bad novelist
the WorkhOuse unfoldS its awful doors. In
literary criticism Mr. Arnold stood alone
In mis- - and Mr.. Arnold's literary IN
come ii is known, surprised, when stated.
the Commissioners Of Income Tax; not by
its afffueuce. OF living critics II would be
in the highest degree dangerous to say Il
word though many words. both of praise
and dispraise might be said OF a person
of reckless character. That with obvious
eypentfOuS) most critics are men intimate
ly familiar with what is best from Homer
to Mr. Stephen Phillips, few students
would venture to aver. That we (fOr am
not the least of all critics, and not worthy
to he called a critic? are entirely devoid |
IF likes. CtSlkSS. /