New-York tribune., 1905-06-18
ll)e 1Ieau1E)looGa5!s gsIbeaas gi I, aeaa
SUNDAY, JUNE Is, 1905.


moment, there never was age quite as
eclectic as our own. Some years ago the real
lists, so called, seemed to be having everything
their own way; then the cloak-and-sWord ro-
mancers came to the front and while they
met with a positively savage reception from
tie defenders of the realistic stronghold they
soon demonstrated that they, too, had "come
TO stay Nowadays the realist and the ro
mancer lie down together, and we hear fewer
and fewer arguments as to which is the lion
and which the lamb. The debate is no longer
worth while, for pretty nearly everybody Is
agreed that both realism and romance vel
come provided both are good 1t is impossible
to talk any about this or that movement
in fiction having clearly defined province
and influence. The old distinctions longer
serve The novelist brings to market his tale
of life in modern Chicago, or of life in ancient
Paris; he weaves detective story a farce;
he treats of rural neighborhood he car
ries his characters to sea, and, whatever his
motive, he is pretty to find a publisher.
Merit alone is the thing that concerns most of
his readers. They will take up almost any
story that promises to be genuinely interest
ing. The upshot of the matter Is that fiction.
taken in the mass, appeals to the world less as
literature than as source Of amusement. 1t
IS only when a work Of genius appears that
the question to whether it spells realism or
romance seriously interests anybody.
In preface to 1.-The Poems of Ernest Dow
SON. Mr.. Arthur Symons tells how that young
man, with others, sought in vain to make the
meetings of the Rhymers Club, at the Chesh-
ire Cheese, productive Of true Latin Quar-
ter emotions Why did they fail7 1--WE could
not help feeling" says Mr.. Symons "that we
were in London, and the atmosphere of Lon
don is not the atmosphere of movements or of
Tn paria ia tha natural
thing in the world to meet and discuss liter
ature ideas, ones own and anothers
work; and it can be done without pretentious-
ness constraint-'' We had thought that this
sort of thing had gone utterly out of fashion,
but perhaps it Is destined to survive just so
long as men who are fatty incapable Of doing
great things IN literature continue to tempt
fortune in print. In the very Paris which Is,
for Mr. Symons, SO rich In the right at
mosphere, there is just being started, as
be informs US. q quarterly which is to bolster
I'D symbolism" and other esoteric causes In
ether words, the minor poet in France, quite
IS much as In England, wants outside help In
order to make himself famous. When will
elese uninspred writer's learn that all they
ueed in order to win fame is genuine inspira-
ion, and that when the gift is once bestowed
upon man he may write his books In the
dullest circles Of the dreariest provincial town,
end still snap his fingers at obscurity7
The lesson which the decadent needs to
tearn is neatly brought out by anonymous
contributor to "The Academy" who has some
things to say about her early reading. A GER
tain literary celebrity, "who was deep In
Dante at twelve" arouses the scorn of this
critic "If you did tKlly read and re-read the
works you MENTION" she says to this celebrity,
who has Dragged about the classics she studied
IN her childhood. you must have noticed how
saturated were the best OF them with love
Of nature; Shakespeare whom you place first
did not spend his youth In coming musty
tones but In the open air, where, all uncon-
sciousIy he received those impressions of
stars and wind and flower and rain that he
ater gave forth In immortal verse. You are
of the town only; nature has no place in your
hooks. and your people are Of the hothouse
The same sermon might be preached to the
Young poets who, like Mr.. Symons, or the Late
Mr. Dowson, never contIive to strike quite the
right note in their work. They prate endlessly
shout nature, but always with the accent OF
men who know her only 4 theatrical prop
erty. If there b anything that Is patheticaIly
amusing it Is tho kind Of picture painted by
member of this school when he seeks to
transfer beautiful scens tD Hoet1J or prose