New-York tribune., 1901-04-14
BIOGRAPHY AND POSTERITT.

The alacrity with which the literary execu-
tors of a celebrated or moderately con-
spicuous man put biography Of him into
print is one Of the evils of the age. 1t has
given us of late many dull volumes that
there is need for such a vigorous protest as Mr.
Edmund Gosse Celebrates in the current num-
ber of THE Anglo-Saxon Review He makes
in some respects n cogent plea for patience and
discretion. But he blends with his just criti-
cism of existing abuses theory Of biography
that is itself open to serious objections. Com
planning that 1.-The best anecdotes the most
illuminating traits, are never recorded in print
lat all"-which overstates the case-he con-
tinues thus:
Tennyson for example. was in real life in
fnitely more racy and reckless than the author
lied portrait gives the public the sghte
son for supposng. Is this wonderful figure Of a
wayward genius TO be successfully hidden from
posterity by a misplaced and too cautious p:ety?
Why should we not be permitted to know Tenny
son as we know Pope and Burns and Byron?
tury worthless such seed pearl Of portra'ture Ns
Aubrey set down unreservedly in his invalu-
able Minutes Of Lives?
This sounds very wise until one begins to look
into the matter. In the first place, is il not
little nonsensica to assume. as is here assumed
that mans most illuminating traits are those
which happen to be of Il "racy and reckless"
IL tit lIue IculNSou 10 ne lueUti-
fed only with those moments which witnessed
an explosion of temper on his part, display of
egotism, flash of eccentricity? And further
more does Mr.. Gosse suppose that reader
taking up "In Memoriam" two hundred years
hence will be ba1led in his study of the poem
by his ignorance of the profane reception which
Tennyson may once have given TO an excessive
butchers bill? The questions answer them
selves. Those 'best anecdotes for which Mr.
Gosse sghs are far from having the profound
significance which he attaches TO them The
circulation Of them Is in fact often ininlical TO
the true representation of great man. Eternal
in the human breast springs the love of gossip
and this causes the stories beloved of Mr.
Gosse to be repeated and touched up until
their Importance has been grotesquey magni
fed and they do grave injustice to the nominal
hero Of them. One OF the first tasks of the biog
rapher writing a few generations after the
death of his subject Is. as all know. the cor
rection Of false rumors and best anecdotes"
Mr.. Gosse might plausibly argue that Hallam
Tennyson could the future biographer a
great deal Of trouble and advance the cause of
truth by peppering the life of his father with
all manner of "racy and reckless things; but
this is not good an argument as 1t seems for
no matter what he included, rosterty would
still rightly insist upon doing It's own sitting OF
the Tennysoniana everywhere accumulated
Moreover, if he owes something to posterity, he
also owes something to his father Mr. Gosse
tactly adopts the belief, only too widespread
now that the public has unquestionabe
right to invade the privacy of the great. In
the days Of Noah they ordered these things
differently. And Shem and Japheth took a
garment, and laid it upon both their shoul-
'ders. and went backward, and covered the
'nakedness of their father; and their faces
were backward, and they saw not their
fathers nakedness." We know the reward
they got for their filial reverence. Would Mr..
Gosse advise the man who writes the life of
his father to follow the example of Ham and
earn his reward? The Book of Genesis is some
thousands of years old, but somehow 1t seems
to us to provide better counsel than that which
Mr. Gosse offers.