New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-04-06
Obs NemWork Gr1ban1r.
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT-.
SUNDAY, APRIL s, 1902.

Critic" about what he calls '.the Dead Level CT
Intelligence" offers energetic and invlgorat-
Ing protest against the passion for conformity
which does SO much to give a certain STANDING
to false values and to crush out the sincerity
and naturaness without which true cultivation
is impossible. There is, indeed no more potent
force of degradation in the world of thought
than this solicitude of thousands. not TO thhk
for themselves but to think rs the great army |
of conventionally 'cultured' people nave
agreed among themselves TO think. Mr.. Lee |
pours scorn upon the Cultured man Must
theory of education, rightly perceiving in It's
domination nothing other than the action or |
mob influence millions of human beings |
he SAYS young and old. in meek and willing |
rows are seen every side, standing before |
1.-THE Dead LcrCl anxious to do anything 10 |
be graded up to it, or to be graded down 10
it-offering their heads to be taken of, their
necks 10 be stretched, or their waists willing |
to live footless all their days anything |
thing whatever, bless their hearts! To know |
that they are the Level, the Dead Level, !
the precise and exact Dead Level of lntelll- |
gence" The commonest Illustration of this is |
the cagcrneSS of SO many people TO read
boom" novel not because they really want 10
read it. but because everybody else is reading |
it. Mr. Lee concludes that zone must go very
far to find Il cultivated man who has not given
up his last chance at dstinction-that is, his
last chance to have his knowledge fit him
closely and express him and belong TO him."
For, incredible as it may seem, it is the cult
waited" reader who is often found with the
boom novel in his hands.
1t is reported that Mr.. Thomas Hardy is not
altogether favorable to the idea of his novels
being reprinted in pocket edition. 1t Will
be interesting to hear just why he is opposed
to the scheme. The miniature volume may
once have been something less than blessing.
1t is not very long since it was apt to be
poorly made. Certainly no one wants book
in which, for the sake of compression, an
abominaby small type is used But, mat
ter Of fact, these tiny publications have of late
been produced in phenomenally satisfactory
manner. The Temple Classics originated by
Dent in London and circulated here by the
Macmillans. have more than proved their use
fulneSs 1t is said that over Il million copies
have been sold, and there is sign of a
diminishing circulation. From the Scribners
we have at the moment of writing received
the works of Shakespeare in three small vol
umes, with Don Quixote" and BurnS's poems
in two others, these appearing in The Caxton
Series started not long ago by Sir George
NeWnes. With their clear type thin but
durable paper, handsome frontispieceS artistic
end papers and we'll eSgned bindings in limp
lambskn. these make about attractive pub
lcations as could be desired
If a debate were held tomorrow with view
to aScertaining the class of literature that has
made the deepest impression upon the Amer
lean people in the last ten years or so the re-