BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-09-17
sAfljUAN, SEPTEMBER II
The Lean Years
Of Literature.

When the publishers of the new
Encyclopedia Britannica" decided to
depart from their traditional practice Of
mentioning no living person in the
pages of that work, their recognized the
embarrassment under which some of
their contributors would labor. As
soon as man is dead you can write of
Ihim with almost perfect frankness.
What you say of him may not be &C
cep ed as final, or even as we.ghty by
his admirers and former friends but
a: any rate there will be little personal
feeling with regard TO your opinions.
Death seems in a moment to put the
departed nto new category and to
make the expression OF an honest esti-
mate no longer offensive or unkind !;
because the subject of it can never
know what has been said of him. But
to write of the living, and to do SO with
sincerity and impartial frankneSs, is
sure to bring a hornets nest about your
ears; for not only will the individuals
themselves resent unpalatable truths,
but their friends, ard their friends
friends, will do the same: and will say
of to you Literary Jealousy" Nor is 1t
merely the things you say tnat Will make
trouble for you The unspoken etl0gy
is often as dangerous as the outspoken
ceasure. In fact, only a sociall hermit
or man of reckless courage will as a
rule, are to sign his name to per-
fecGly frank criticism Of his contempo-
raries
knowing and appreciatiag these
facts the publishers of the new Ency
c.ota ia Britannica have permitted
sach of their contributors as preferred
10 leave their articles unsigned 10 do
So and in a number Of cases the con-
tributors have avaiIsd themselves of
this permission. But in one very re-
markab,e instance-the very instance
where anonymity would have been
safest-we find writer daring to say
exactly what h. thinks, not merely OF
several contemporaries, but of all OF
them 10 whose profession he himself
belongs; This audacious person is Mr.
Edmund Gosse, who has contributed to
the fourth volume of the Encyclol &c
dia an article on English Literature
siace 1870 Mr. Goose IS. widely known
as a most amiab'e and tactful gentle
man. His literary frienshi.9s, and his
personal friendships, too are innamer-
able His popularity in the London
set Of noveliSts, essayis.s and poets has
always beel very great. Yet with all
thesn frien lships 10 wreck and all this
popllarity to lose, he deliberately signs
his name to six cen and half columns
of plain, wholeso ne unadultered truth,
as unswee.ened by fattery as 1t is ur-
seasoned b prejudice. The immediate
result is that the whole genus irrita
bile OF those who have been making
books in the past twenty years ore stir
ring the reviews and magazines
to their very depths in -dcnuaciagion of
what some regard i; Mr. Gosses inca
paeity, oilers as his superciiousness,
and Still others as his Pessimsm.
What is it that Air Gosse has really
done? Why do the writer's and review
erS rage together SO unanimously Mr.
Gosss has simply surveJ ed the period
of which he had TO write, and in doing
SO has also looked far back into the
past and for ward into the future Thus
he has arrived at a sense of true pre-
portion, which enables ,hiin to see that
the years from 1879 to 1901 form in
reality what he has epigrammatically
described as a period of great fune-
rails =. He has been. in other words,
decidedly impressed by the number of
great writers who have pas ed aNayl
since 1879. He has not been at all i'm
pressed By the genius or by the prom
iSe of most of those whose careers have
recently begun. He discovers in the
literary history Of the last two decades
nothing more significant than lali, |.
such as that which intervened between
the decline of Scott and the advent of
Charles Dickuss. Hence, he has pre-.
ferred to characterize the writings Of
the period zen masse' rather than to
mention them and their authors by
name and in detail Among novelists,l
for instance, he does no. speak specifi-
cally Of Gissing, or Lucas Malet, or An
thoay Hooe, or Mrs Craiges or II. G.
Wells Among The posts, he does not
write the name of William Watson, or
Francis Thompson; or w. B. Yeats, or
Mrs Meynell or Andrew Lang or Aus
tin Do5son. No wonder, then, that
there is a tremendous buzziDg IN the
literary hives, and That even 50 sensible
a p-riodicakas the New York Times
accuses nin of making the "Encyclo
pa la BIT anaica a playground for
snllbs and preferences
et s1Tel few can read NJ Gasses
article itself vi bout feeling thorough
Ii q 3f1vi need that he Is 1'it,7sf + rectss