The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-02

OF the Had, the author OF which pride
himself on having brought Homer up :
date. and upon having forced the Fathe
Of Poetry 10 speak the language that b
must have spoken had II been his goo'
fortune to live at the beginning OF Tho
eighteenth century. The question now
practically was, Ought Homer TO yield
up his fame TO La Motto. or was his pro
fessed improver only half a poet. Int
such a debate Fenelon's sense Of the ridicu
lous would have forbidden him to enter
were 1t not that sTe!emaque' was being
quoted as an argument on both sides
He thus found himself confronted by 4
dilemma; either he must give official np'
proval to a caricature Of Homer. or he
must wound the feelings OF a friend, the
translator. The Archbishop Of Cambria
however, was not a d~iplomstist for nothing
as the letter u the Academy shows. In II
an ironical balance il held between the
Ancient and the Modern; La Motto and his
party are inundated by a shower Of double
| edged compliments, their admissions are
c~ourteously overvalued. their principles
turned TO their own confusion. The
Ancients. = said Fenelon. have their faults,
yet are still not unworthy OF four imitation
l hope that the Moderns will learn to sur
pass them by turning their own arms against
themselves"
Beneath the cloak Of ~politeness, never
tholess, Fenelon was an Ancient OF the
| Ancients. The cornerstone Of his gospel
OF taste was the axiom Back to the Creeks
his one panacea for literary diseases was
-the amiable simplicity Of the dawning
world" Yet, while his love for the Greeks
determined Fsnelon's relation TO the most
illustrious writer's Of his century, he was
not one Of those classicists who swore by
Boileau and the AIRS Pottique. Like him
indeed says Lord st. Cyres, they look
back to the Greeks and Romans. but look
with very different eyes; they found in
| antiquity q governess. but he, a nursing
| mother; he sought to breathe the very air
of Hellas; they drew an ordnance map OF
| Greece. They too TO Homer as a Church
system TO the Scriptures, as Fenelon's
own Inflated MaXiins OF the Saint to st.
Bernard, or st. John OF the Cross; their
Imitation tended to become q pedantry,
their reverence for rule a fetch and a bond
age that placed the difficult above the beau
tiful. and made the writing Of a poem a
| discipline OF useless torture To the
failings Of his contemporaries Fenelon was
keenly alive. His Letter to the Academy
appeals from the degenerate new TO the
old and real classics; from Comedies
"wordy rhetoric" to Roman simplicity
from Racine's academic signs to the sad
earnestness Of Sophocles, n sven from
Moliere's .galimatias Of metaphors" 20 the
limpid grace OF Terence. To every word
OF praise for Racine's beauties. or for Mo
H.. 49, 10 a11aJ
a paragraph OF blame. In a word, his
extravagant verdict was that " no new
thing can be good"
We should note. In conclusion. the view
which Fenelon o Of his native tongue,
1t is expressed in the Letter to the Academy
French he said. was a medley OF all sorts
of languages, neither grand, nor harmo-
NOUS, nor free, nor varied; II did not lend
itself TO verse or to imaginative trans
port: IL was fast bound within the iron
rules Of grammar. Everywhere the parts
OF speech came by in one monotonous pro-
cession-frst the subject Of the sentence
leading an adjective by the hand. next,
with an adverb tightly clinging to IL came
the verb, and. not far behind, one beheld
the accusative, laboring up TO take its place.
Within the last hundred years all was gone
from bad TO worse; men had straitened and
impoverished their tongue under pre-
tence OF making il more pure. Many
words were cast out, and few brought in;
the old nervous racy language of the six
teenth century was gone; syntax had pan
ished sentiment, and vividness, and force
In a word, Fenelon's Letter TO the Academy
was "a plea, not for greater la~wlessness In
matters OF language. but for greater beauty;
an appeal on behalf OF a vanishing pictur-
| sequences. OF hat ueur idnpd1e qui ~ fat
reoretter, so bold and harmonious, so free
and varied. 30 charged with delicate sug-
gestiveness and passion. so necessary. also,
10 the perfecting Of his own peculiar ex-
cellence. the poetry without the rhyme or
metre hat is a living fiction painting ma
ture' in musical. imaginative prose The
appeal was a hopeless one. In that IL asked
men To stem the whole current Of their
century. and give back 10 a language.
daily becoming more cold. and rational.
and abstract. The vividnees and warmth of
imagery IL was rejoicing to have left be-
hind The soil on which he sowed. how
ever. was not entirely barren Time
brought Fenelon his revenge when In his
own country there arose q generation
which know not classloism. when lamar
tine. and Victor Hugo. and Theophile Oau-
tier restored his principles 10 honor, and
hailed the author % the letter 10 the Aoad-
envy AZ ths chief poetic genius Of his age.
"A IA