New-York tribune., 1905-01-22
0be Neap'Uork Gribmsas
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
SUNDAY, JANUARY %, 1905.

The famous publishing house of Murray has
deserved well of literature ever since its foun-
datiOn, and if may judge from an article
In the Pail Mall Gazette" the present John
Murray is worthy of his fofefathers. There
is to be no final Life of Byron as you call it,
SO long as l can prevent it" he is quoted as
saying to an interviewer. There has been too
much nonsense talked about the poet, and
will be no party to lending his papers and my
collection to anything that tends to increase
and perpetuate that kind of thing. All that the
public can reasonably ask about him is con-
tained in the last authorized edition" No doubt
there are wseacres ready to jump up in hys-
tercaI protest against what they are bound to
consider the astounding presumption OF this
publisher We can readily imagine how indig-
nant they are and how strongly they hold to
the conviction that Mr.. Murray. as the pub
Usher of the definitive edition of Byron and
the pOsSeSSOr of unique Byron manuscripts, Is
adopting a dOg-in-the manger policy. But his
resolution to protect the poet so far as is pos
sble. from the depredations of the literary body
snatcher must commend itself to every right
minded Individual. We have had more than
enough scandalous tttletattle about Byron
Take it at its worst and it leaves the great
poet with his character for truth, generosity
and courage absolutely untarnished- Mr.. Muir
ray has nothing tragic to conceal about Byron
He simply gives warning that he will not help
to give currency to the trivial details of his
private life. He honors himself in thus honor
ing the man who did so much to secure the
fame and fortune of his family.
Professor Firth, who was recently appointed
Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford,
devoted his inaugural lecture to the expression
of his opinions on the method which should be
followed in historical study. The duty of the
historian in interpreting events he set forth in
this wise.
He has to state the truth II appears TO him
He has to combine his facts and to construct
something out Of them. either a description or a
story, or a demonstration All his facts are
equally true, but all are not equally important
He must select certain facts and bring them
into prominence, and put other facts in the
background. or even leave them out altogether
unimportant- He must show the connections
of these facts with each other, and their causes
and results. BY this process of selection and
arrangement he endeavors to reproduce the ef-
feet which the whole of the evidence has pro-
duced upon his mind. He strives to en-
body in some material form conception OF the
PAST which is floating in his head. And this
work of combination construction and re-crea-
tion is essentially artistic rather than scientific
In its nature
Now Professor Firth is as '9The Athenpum''
calls him, "a strenuous advocate of the scien-
tifc teaching Of history which for long time
past has been practised on the Continent" But
the foregoing passage shows that he does not
confuse the training Of the student who means
to write history with the duty of that student
when he actually sits down to produce his book.
He realizes that in the sphere of history, as
elsewhere in literature, science should be the
servant of the writer, and that it should never
be allowed to minimize the virtues which flow
from the exercise of individual genius
The literary editor Of 'The Bystander' COM
plains of the critics for themselves circulating
that baleful theory which implies for the critic
good and bad, a lower place than your tu-
penny-ha'penny novelist, because, forsooth, the
latter is engaged upon creative work" Il
have heard novelis$ Of the most contemplate
attainments," he adds ''bIandly disparaging lit
erary critics. in every their superiors, with
this theory for reason" This commentator is
obviously distressed. He ought only to be
amused. There is certainly something very
funny about the way in which your modern
dabster crosses the line separating the work of
the novelist from that of the critic. He crosses
it ostentatiously, and with much blowing of
trumpets. His friends in the press publish
touching paragraphs, in which a world that