Daily Kennebec journal., 1902-05-03

The question possesses a perennial
interest. 1t concerns not alone tnose
finical and scrupulous persons VINO
are actuated by d desire to escape
the pricks of conscience, that IS TO
say, it has not alone moral SIDE out
it also has an aesthetic side which con-
Germs persons particular as to taste
says the Boston Journal
1t is this latter side that is still an
open field. So far as morality is con-
cerned, books are much like men, easily
divisible into the good and the bad, the
desirable and the undesirable, the ben
efiting and the harming. Yet, some
times, we make room for questionable
books on the top shelf, just as we sit
down to dinner with men who have
squeezed out of tight places. But SO
| far as taste is concerned-ah, there's
| the rub.
| Mr.. Augustine Birrell, in the collec-
tion of his works recently published
Essays ana Addresses" Snakes the
bold statement: "After all, the best
| books are the cheapest Probably the
| customers of the Cornhil shops would
! agree with the English critic. He
| sDeaks himself of the great DR.. Balir,
| whose Lectures on Taste may still be
had OF the Edinburgh secondhand
booksellers for sum it would be un-
generous to state in figures
Addison said: Literary taste is the
| faculty which liscerns the beauties of
an author with pleasure and the inn
perfections with delight If a man
1yould know whether he is possessed
OF this faculty l would have him read
over the celebrated works of antiquity
,hich have stood the test of 50 many
different ages and countries"
That seems simple enough. Let us
see who side with Addison: Hume,
Goethe, Echerlnann, Matthew Arnold
to mention few. If the originals are
impossible, good translations viii do.
Did not Emerson favor translations
Respect tradition, but do not respect
traditionally. Landor was reckless as
well as fearless when he said: I'VE
admire by tradition and We criticise by
caprice" Mr.. Birrell hammers in q
sounder nail when he says: 'Tradi-
ton is the most trustworthy adver-
| tisement and the wisest advice" APP
ply to these conditions strong under
standing ana a delicate sentiment, and
the road will fork before you-the
good books paving the way to one side
and the bad books to the other.
| Now, it may be too much to assume
that these requisite conditions will
ever generally exist. That leaves the
question as it was found. That has
been a Tile discussion which results
in concurrence N MIR. Birrelrs opinion
that IF you manage to live just little
above the clouds and mists of your
| own generation, why then, with luck,
You may be right nine times out OF ten
in your judgment of dead author,
and ought not to be wrong more fire.
quentiy than perhaps three times out
Of seven in the case of Il living author
This. from Current Literature, is ap-
plauded by the Springfield Republican,:
I'VE have received requests to publish
month by month q list of the best-sell-
ing books. A day of mechanical novels
is likely to be a day of matherna tical
criticism. but we rare not disposed to
contribute to the idea that the merit of
a volume is TO be measured by its
sales.' G@
Henry James is still ill and his new
novel THE Wings of the Dove will
not appear for some time to come.
William Sage, the author of Robert
Tournay" and The Claybornes," is the
son of the late Abby Sage Richard
sonA Her husband was Albert D. Rich
ardson, the famous war correspondent,
who was captured while attempting to
run the gauntlet of the Confederate
batteries at Vieksburg, the steamboat
being shot to pieces. This evidently
| S-r1s 90
the hero of The Ciaybornes'' goes.
birthday edition of Edward
Everett Hales THE Man Without a
Country has been issued by The Out
look Company through special ar
langement with Little, Brown 6 Co.
who are the publishers of DIR. Halcs
collected works. The edition is limit
ed to two thousand and ..ignty CORES.
of which eighty are printed on Jap
paper, signed and numbered. The
frontispiece is a full length portrait of
DR.. Hale, who contributes a preface es-
recially written for this edition.
Therein he remarks, apropos of its first
publication: The utmost secrecy was
observed in carrying the story through
the press of the Atlantic Monthly. The
proofs were not sent to me; they were
sent to the editor, Mr.. Fields who sent
them to me. The story stood in the
name of Captain Frederic Ingham of
the navy, but unfortunately for me it
happened to be published in the
December number, which was then the
index number of the Atlantic The
gentleman who made the index knew,
merely from my handwriting, that /
wrote the story. and after all our pre-
caution, the index at the end of the
volume announced me as the author of
Ilt in the same issue in which it was
printed. | tell this story by way of
precaution to young editors" The vol
ume is printed in large type and is
handsomely bound in red cloth, with
paper label.
The plot of MI. Howells's latest
novel, 1.-THE Kentons." appears to have
got away with him. 1t was his inten-
| ton to take the Kenton family to E,i-
rope. to relate minutely their new ex-
| periences there, and to call the story
The Discovery of Europe" But, as
he proceeded, Ellen Kenton's love af-
fair progressed so far that it domi-
mated the entire story, the scope of