The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-12-03
K OF SUBSCRIPTION.
WILMINGTON N. C.
VARIA.

Kip.ing's last novel kim" is various
ly estimated according to the insight,
culture, taste and candor of the critics.
Several leading literary opponents in
London severely comment upo ii.
Others praise. In this country so far as
we have noticed the laudation is gen.
eraI- New York n other newspapers
Iaud ad nauseam. The English product
this fall in novels lead the writer's on
Il side of the Atlantic it is said. That
as. if judged by the standard Of intel
lie sual worth" which after all is said
is he one standard by which to aD-
u Use mental productions. The moral
a-estion is of great Importance and
A. st not be lost sight OF. We have
b. able to learn at last, after extern
size putting by the various indiscrimi-
mating writer's Of book notices, that the
two most important novels Of the last
sly months are deficient in moral puri-
ty: ere actually offensive and "narsty."
We refer to Hewlett's Canterbury
Tales and Richard Calmady," the
latter by the very gifted daughter of an
eminent British novelist. Rev. Charles
Kingsley, who was a clergyman of the
Church Of England. So offensive are
parts of her book, and so sharply have
they been cauterized, she has determin-
ed to make changes and eliminate one
entire chapter Of righteousness. She
had written before books of distinction,
is married. middle-aged, and yet she
becomes obscene and putrid. 1t is ow-
Inc to her devotion to two or three of
the European novelists Of the base
born and salacious type. If a gifted
author, and a lady by association and
reputation can be corrupted and led
astray in her writings by vulgar, in
sinuating novelists, how must it be
with ordinary mortals in reading such
works to be bitterly condemned and
Stunned as if they were OF lazaar
houses and p~estilential in the extreme.
1t is far better never to read a line
than to read the thousand and one Wit
iating, debauched novels of this m
= - = =
We met recently with a new incident
an the life of Lord Macaulay that in
terested. He was solicited to write "a
history of English literature in the
nineteenth century. He refused to do
this saying, 81 should not choose to
take on myself the business of estimat-
ing the merits of my contemporaries
1t would be quite impossible for me to
sneak the truth without inf1icting pain
and making enemies" He died in 1883,
- --oL 1;ztorx- wound have brought
him to consider nearly every great
writer of that most richly endowed CEN
fury. 1t would have embraced with the
earlier great poets and men of letters
wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Scott,
Shelley, Keats-such famous and noply
equipped authors as Carlyle, Tennyson,
Browning, Mrs. Browning, and other
of the highly gifted. What a splendid
gallery OF portraits the great essaylst
and historian could have produced.
What an imperishable charm and eat
ty and power would have fingered upon
the pages. What a loss to letters and
TO the enjoyment Of millions of q
was that delicacy Of judgment, that
wise de%clinature. But how we would
TeV6il6u IN us VIII AIN louohh - N"
ITCHY and its generosity Of judgment,
its uneGualled fascination Of style, Its
brilliancy of rhetoric, its splendor OIL
portrayal. it's magnifcence of descrlp-
ton. If you would see something or
what you have lost, read his paper on
Milton. the most brilliant criticay es-
say in English literature, and his other
contributions on writer's, which you Will
find in his Incompatible essays, among
the positive glories of the rich, teeming
literature of Great Britain, including
ireland Of course.
- = :.
A vast numbe of books are adver-
tised now as among the new produc-
lions. Their name is literally Legion"
There is no end to the outpour. Never
before was there SO much reason for
careful selection, and such an impera-
tive necessity for a College of Honest
Critics to select and inform the people
who love good literature and would
avoid trash and putridity, what to read.
Time is precious. For b first time in
two years we sat down h other day
I'd TSdO Ine IdSl HONSl VI SAONS AA7
lish writer. some of whose books We
had read ten or more years ago. We
read -four chapters and quit the job,
saying, why waste precious hours over
such an inf1iction. We had also aban-
sjoned the reading of another popular
novelist because we did not iii it
worth while to persist in reading.
That was two or three years ago. We
never began a novel by Scott or Thack-
cray OF Dickens or George Eliot, or
Fielding, or Charlotte Bronte or Charles
| Kingsley or Bulwer or Charles Reade
Eor George Meredith or Mrs. Oliphant
and several other writers. without a
ing to the end. We have abandoned
other authors who are much estimated,
being unable to worry through their
productions and among them was the
now much praised Jane Austen and Mrs