The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-10-22

= ago may well remember. mere
are plenty of good books without pat
Tonizing Cable. There are hundreds of
novels of an excellent quality that will
meet all demands of all tastes without
reading Cables productions or OF men OF
his kind. After you have exhausted all
of the mastery works Of the worlds
creative writer's it will be time enough
to tackle Gable. He should be let "se-
yere1y alone" by all genuine men and
women of our great section. SO at
least one editor thinks.
There is such a multitudinous output
of "great' novels now. if you follow the
opinions of newspaper critics, and, of
magazine critics also, that you will be
kept extremely busy if you assay to
read them all. Upon an average two
"great' novels appear every week if We
conade in the critical judgment of
whose opinions appear in
the flaming advertisements Of the pub
lishers. Fortunately there are some
sane and serious critics who live in
this country and in Great Britain. n
from them it is possible to obtain sound
deliverances as to particular books. OF
course these more acute and cautious
writer's do not always agree as to the
merits Of a particular novel, but they
are net apt to over praise or underrate
a wor.Z Of literary c~leverness, and are
quite sure not to indorse the trifing, in
artistic, high flown, absurdly conceived
tuovolS that are devoI1red bv the million
with an extraordinary appetite. It is
to be profoundly regretted that the
critical conscience nowadays is so
precarious> if not unhealthy. Else so
much trashy opinion. such false esti-
mates of books would not be made.
The office of a critic in letters is an i'm
portant one. Talfourd. Macaulay, and
others have lone much in behalf
ed literary work, of purity and
Wy, of hign ideals and noble sem
The latter-day critic has a
"(duty before him. 1t is to dis
mate, to analyze, to expose, to dis
to rebuke, to praise, to puncture
n behood and putridity, to uphold the
1bd and the true, and to make the
false. the immoral, the c%orrupting a
r stencil and an offence. We e lately
a critical essay in the literary depart
ment OF the Baltimore Sun by Prof.
Guy Carleton Lee, of Johns Hopkins
University, on the functions and duty
Of the critic. 1t was particularly sensi-
bic n safe and observing. He avs
for instance:
I'VE have called this a question, but
1t is one to which, in the judgment OF
the writer, there can be only on answer
The reviewer is in some sort the custo-
dian of literary morals, and If he pal
late or pass over in silence on offense
against purity and morality he stands
convicted of treason to the best. 1t Is
his duty to warn putative readers or q
book OF the evil which the book contains
to protect the pure. from contact with
open or disguised impurity. If he fail
to do this. he loses one Of his greatest
uses to the public. More: he exposes
himself, and justly, to the imputation
that by his silence he has condoned the
evil which lies in h work" tH- 4
We agree with him that the profess
sional critic has a stern trust to dis
charge-to expose vice. vulgarity, lu-
briefly and all that is low and corrupt
ing. He wisely says:
TT is his business-we may say his
trust-to inform the public Of the ma
ture. the merits and demerits, OF the
work which appeals to the SURFACES OF
that public. If he is to pass over In ST.
1ence the demerit. the sin, OF impurlty'
how is his trust fulfilled? For surely
there is nc such blot upon a work as
that of impurity; there is no such dan
ger and threat to literature as the Cd
faining or impurity as a part thereof
Shall the reviewer see the spread OF the
canker and hold his peace"
We are not a professional critic. we
write about old books. the
zenerally, and not Of the new DOCKS
which we do not read. When we refer
to the latter or any one Of them, we
give some opinion or opinions OF others
BY name. and not our own I'M
we have been mistaken in over-prals-
ing some books OF the last ten years,
and failed to expose the Objectionable
<eatures-the filth, the suggestions OF
avs, the impurities. But this has been
N oversight in more than n instance
narbaps rather than from cowardlce or
design. Let the truth be told always
- well as of books as Of things.
The best critics in England ana tne
north nave much lauded the last doom
by a gifted, distinguished Enghsn au-
thor. Hewlett. 1t is called the Ne"
canterbury Tales, he using with no NJ
lie Of art the great old poem-oneo OF the
-reatest in the rich poetic treasury or
Great Britain, Dan Chaucer's long cele-
brated "Canterbury Tales" that are as
Immortal as Homer or Dante We have
not seen the new book. but were led TO
believe it 1T reading for the nome Tor