The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-04-21

3- FL mere are almost as many de-
f~lnltlons as there are writer's OF novels
Each one has his theory. good or bad
Many Of them write Of thu decay OF .he
novel While some OF the recent novels
jhcSe q The last four or five years
are douhtiess strong. entertaining I2a
SOME morally healtAfIl there has been d
"oTid n trash produced. and what i
worse. caught up and read. D-eadence
IS here. aud the producers and readers
Increase. one novelist insists that 5
novel should BE- bur tho writer's expert
enee. Another holds that il should OK
press the intensity OF the struggles OF
the soul. And so each one has Il theory
But the best OF them admit that ii is an
era or very crude ana ~uureWarding pro-
d%uction, in so far at least as the readers
are concerned. The great novels are
neglected. and the poor. namby pamby.
inartistic ones are read. Thackeray IS
showed aside while all hands rush into
ne Cabbage Patch and deyour and
fiji TO repletion. 4 hopeful sign Is that
some OF the ablcSt writer's Conccde
the lnferlority Of most Of the product
lr- benjamin Swift. an English author
Of grip and vigor-an able writer ana
thinker-says that much OF the Lteratur.
produced now SIS extremely SUPERFICIAL
and yet it is useful for it ministers to
the needs of a public that insists on being
fed on scraps" Even Thomas Hardy, Who
was graceless and strong enough to write
such very virile but immoral novels as
Tess and Jude" approves Of a say
ing of Mr.. Swift's that IAN immoral book
hides truth and creates a fools para
disc and a mirage that misleads." Mr.
". E. Norris. a novelist of ability. does
not think that the vast stream OF novels
now flooding the world has much to DO
with literature at all" Mr.. Eden Phil
potts, one Of the foremost Of present
novelists, thinks we'll of "our best ic-
ton saying it SIS careful and coEscieE-
tious, even distinguished" but below the
work of the masters. He says the mass
of fiction IS written by the half-educated
for the educated and that about
describes it. He says, and with truth:
The flame and stencil Of stuff that sells
its hundreds of thousands of copies Is
mistaken for light and sweetness by the
mass Of readers Mr.. Kernahan. a
novelist Of repute, says that much of the
fiction-Writing of today is but alms-giv-
ing to the imaginative. 1t is the
building Of a sort Of Parish Poor House. :"
And he writer calls it "eXecrable stuff. :"
Another laments that cit is true we
have no giants-no Thackerays or Scots
and adds that "a public gets the lit
e~rature it deserves" and this believe
to be exactly true. Another novelist
writes that 1.-The great stars are not yet
TO be seen rising above the literary
horizon In the face of so much gushing
praise bestowed on some fifty or a hun
dred novels written in a few years it may
strike one as absurd that "the great
stars" nave not lately appeared. And
still that is forever true. | get the ex-
tracts from the February number of the
New York "Critic.' But it may be urged
in defence that the critics are absurdly
at fault, and that they have caused the
trashy stuff to be so eagerly devoured.
This is only true in part. Scores of the
most popular books would nave been read
with joy and approval if no critic had
written a line concerning them. The
public crave excitment, and reading with
out cultivated taste the third or fourth
rate books are apples of wisdom and sat
isfying sugar plums. A writer in the
Atlantic Monthly correctly says that "the
person whose taste is formed on trash
viii have a trashy taste to his dying
day" Of course he will. He has no
standard higher han his own poor taste,
for he knows absolutely nothing of the
great authors and the men Of acknoWl-
edged creative genius and power. What
can q fellow ever know of Mozart or
Mendelsohn who never heard anything
but a cheap banjo with a breakdown
tune? How can a lover Of Corelli ever
love Thackeray or Scott? The critics,
who have high standards based upon the
treat authors, may generally be trusted,
but now and then they indulge in non
sense. A writer in the Atlantic puts
Anthony Trollope but "a little below the
great Thackeray. Marvellous, Read that
able English critic, Sir Leslie stephens
late paper on TrollOpe, and you will find
a calm, judicious estimate of a pleas
ant, clever author without true genius.
The over-praiscd novels sell, some die.
A flood of puerile praise can not save
them.
Recently conversing with an unusually
Well cultivated and intelligent lady. we
talked of the great outpouring of f%ctions,
SO few of which have any true artistic
and mental worth. | mentioned to her
that in the last thirty or forty years
there had been produced in England five
novels of conspicuous merit which gave
them rank above all others, | thought.
l did not vouch the moral worth OF all.
They We're:
i. The Cloister and The HEARTH by
Charles Reade.
,. ''Th Ordeal of Richard Feverel," by
George Meredith.
3. Lorna Done by Richard Black
more.
4. John Inglesant," by John Shot
house. This fine writer died a few weeks
ago. Literature is a loser thereby.
). Tess D'Urbeville,' by Thomas
Hardy.
The last is very original, strong and
interesting, but pitiably vile.
IN this connection let me mention that
biography is indeed one of the most in
teresting and instructive kinds Of read
ing. Good biography to a cultivated
mind is about as entertaining and stimu-
lating as a good novel by a master. There
are three lives of Napoleon now accessi
Bile that are we'll worthy of attention
The one by William O'Connor Morris is
very readable. and it is the fairest book
ever written on Napoleon by an EnglisE,
man. 1t is a valuable work for its limi-
tationS, one volume. Another one-volunlC
work on Napoleon is by the most dis
tinguished writer Of Georgia, with the
| aypaOtiOp of SidnpJ amer the nOpt and