New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-17
Ibe ArAn;9lork 6ribmoGes
SUNDAY, DECEMBER II, 1905.

1t is stated in '1The Academy" that the Lon
den publishers "are said to have done very Wen
during the season that is now drawing to
close" and this in spite Of circumstances not
supposed to be favorable. 1t is assumed that
tha s.thriIJs of the Russian revolution" for ex-
ample, might have been expected to discourage
trade The event has proved this fear TO nave
been without foundation, but 1.-The Academy
still holds to the traditional theory that 'as a
rule, when the newspapers are excited, the De
mand for books declines" We doubt IL even
the most carefully compiled statistics could De
made to settle this question. which we oeheVe
must always remain a matter OF purely specu-
Iatiye opinion. Our own notion has always
been that the first and last cause of a good or
bad publishing season-barring, of course, the
Influence of industrial and financial conditions
is to be traced to the character of the DOCKS
offered to the public. Though the ups anu
downs of the literary market are hard 10 e4-
plain in detail it seems to be fairly estab-
Iished fact that good books sell and bad ones
stay unsoId These explanatory references to
events having nothing to do with the PUBLISH
ers always seem far fetched and even little
foolish.
Some years ago, when it was announced that
the editor of the leading newspaper In England
was about to be married, a London Wit ex-
pressed unbounded satisfaction in the prosper
that ''The Times" would at last get into rela-
lions with humanity. A similar emotion is pro-
voked by a letter which Mrs. Helen Toynbee
has lust sent to 1.-THE Athen8um." Who would
guppose that an author could have quarrel
with publishers practising under, the superb
title of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press!
With a style like that it would seem Impossible
to act with anything save senatorial grandeur
But it seems that Mrs. Toynbee could not finish
quite in time all Of the induces for the index
volume of the new edition of the Letters of
Horace WaIpole" which she has been preparing
for the Clarendon Press. Whereupon the Dele
gates aforesaid proposed other arrangements,
and she was reluctantly compelled to accede
60 their request that / should hand over the
induces to them for completion by other hands"
She gave them the material she had compiled
I'D to data considerable mass, we gather
from her letter-and gave it ''on the understand
ing that it should be printed in its entirety and
should serve as a model for the completion OF
the index on the same plan" But when the
proofs were sent to her for correction she found
that her plan had been changed and that so
many alterations had been made in what she
had done that she was no longer able to recog-
niZe her own work. "In these circumstances,
she saws 81 could not consent to correct the
proofs, nor can 1 accept any responsibility for
the induces now announced for publication" A
very pretty quarrel and somehow particularly
amazing in that it should involve body so
stately as the Delegates Of the Clarendon Press
The anonymous author of the papers pub
Iished in ''CornhiIl" under the title Of "From
College Window" makes this month profitable
confession 1t seems that an irascible friend
of his boiled over in argument the other day
and told him some home truths about himself
The victim of the onslaught does not repeat in
detail what was said to him, but remarks that
sit amounted to a charge of egotisn." He adj
mits that the experience was good for his SOUL
and after his usual engaging fashion he pro-
ceeds to talk about egotism for the benefit of
his reader. Speaking of it as it influences the
proceedings of serious Individuals he says: Il
think that the duty of every thoughtful person
who desires to avoid egotism in the intellectual
region is to cultivate what may be called the
scientific or even the sceptical spirit and not to
form conclusions without evidence" The ad
vice is perfect. But if it We're TO be followed
with any sort of unanimity by mankind at large
we would have the millennium at once. 1t would
mean the Transformation Of human nature. No
where more persistently than in 'the intel
lectual region" do men give free play to their
egotism They will hesitate before they argue
about the mysteries of electricity, bridge build
ing or dressInaking, but try them ON Plato or
III IlptaDhySip9l sn1