Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-03-01
Real Forces in Literature.

NbtOf1stN Is easy Oi tIilItN II -
these days. when publicity has became
a fine art and the right to privacy mas
been generally relinquished. In
literature. as in other things. 4
boom is the simplest matter in the
world. The more an author pro-
iects his personality before the gaze of
readers the greater figure he will be in
the literary" journals and other We
bicles of choice gossip. Even crlu-
oiSm which used to be impersOnal. mas
become mere affair of some one :
signature. giving the opinions. watch
may be worthless, but which are held
in regard because he has himself writ
ten something. out of this grows
the gentle art of log rolling. by which
authors pat one another on the back.
What a big boy a III said Little jack
Horner pulling out a plum. The
HornerS of literature often follow this
example. but it is more modest and
quite as effective to pull the plums out
of your neighbours pie. and sing his
praises, knowing full We'll that h. is
doing you the same good turn. This is
the real evil of signed criticism. which
does not make the critic more re-
SponSibie, as its advocates fondly
urge, but only tempts him 10 bid Tor
reciprocal faVors. 1t is at once anus
ing and saddeninS TO look over the
Atlantic Monthly or the North Amer
lean Review of forty years ago, ana
4 Lowell or a Whipple and then turn
to the ten cent magazines of today
where the least important skit car
rio In = ~, AZ,
black type The main thing then was
what was said. not who said it: and
this is an ideal to which it would do no
harm to return.
Yet. after all. the real forces Of
literature are not to be found among
those who win the evancscent glory of
the osroller. The men who arc
cultivatins right ideals. wha are max
ing the just appreciation of the really
great writer possible. still work al
most unnoticed and unknown. Some
times one among them rises into
conspicuous public figure as Arnold
did. But the value of the work does
not depend upon the measure of
popular applause. The late Richard
Holt Hutton had wider influence
upon his generation than many writ
c1 who figures large in the abstracts
and brief chronicles of the time Wnip-
pie. who has been mentioned above.
moulded the taste of thousands who
dld not know his name. The circtlm-
stances which have made the nam" Of
Samuel Johnson familiar to the mcrcst
school boy illustrate the principle UNI
der consideration. johnson did in his
lifetime the work Of the critic He
wrote lives of poets. edited Shake
spcare. compiled dictionary. produc-
ed short romance and a few poems
1t is doubtful if these things alone
would have made him known to any
but students of literature in future
generations. Yet this indirect influence
would have been just as great had he
had no Boswell to make him the most
human and lovable among all the fig
ures of past men Of letters.
\ man who assuredly belongs to The
real forces of literature is Mr.. Norman
Maccoll. who has Just retired from tire
editorship of the London Athenacum.
Mr.. Maccoll was even less known than
Mr. Hutton Of the Spectator. Yet as The
editor of the first organ of criticism
IN the English speaking world-and
tit'i' - no uouDt OF the right of the
Athcnaeuln to this distinction-his in
iiuehce upon the taste of the commune
" Was the widest. He drew about him
some of tn" soundest scholars and most
distinguished critics of the day ana bv
MS discrimination and tact gave their
contributions to his columns a unity of
SPIRIT and harmony of purpose that
made the name Athenaeum q synonym
Tor all that was best In critical iour-
halism. Such men as he do not do their
work with any flourish of trumpets:
but 1t Is none the less well done. and
It's dong means the redemption of it,
efatufe, so far as possible. from the
cheap and tawdry and insincere.-The
Providence Journal