The Washington times., 1905-11-05
=" ViFiiity" and Literature.

and essayist, has found the real
trouble with our literature. We are
too 'antiethieal" and too "viriie"-l
which sounds a great deal worse, at
the first reading. than it does after
YOU have pondered IL awhile. The
antiethieal symptoms, according 70
Mr.. Benson, are not malignant. They
are merely a narrow reaction against
the widespread success of produc-
tions which have a purely ethical
motif" But the "yiriie" ailment Is
serious and IL should be viewed in
the light Of Mr.. Benson's own dag
nosis. published in the London Ma
tional Review:
The .virile person, determined TO have
the best OF everything. has realized that
he has certain emotions, which ii gives
him pleasure TO express. and which he
eonceiyes TO be artistic. The result
IS that. seeing that there is a brother
hood Of art, which has a certain infiu-
ence on the world, he is resolved to be
inside Il, and communicate a pleasant
stir to il. And so, as in the symposium
of Plato, q noisy and turbulent inva-
sion has taken place. The reYeiers
who rush IN have a certain xigor, a
free hunnor, a definite pictnresqueness
But, as in the case OF the kingdom of
heaven, the violent have taken the do
main OF art by force, to the annoyance
and regret OF more quiet-minded per-
sons
So. then, our novelists are too
clamorous. too full of red blood. too
tempestuous. Their motto is taken
from the savings of the immortal
Bottom: Il could play Ercles rarely,
or part to tear a cat In. to make
all split" They have too large an
ear for noise and too good an eye
for the best selling book to find
delight In the, sweet harmonies Of
the classics or the fair valleys of re-
finement.
Tearing a cat'' is, to tell the truth,
fine epitome of the modern "his-
torical" novel. odds bodkins,"
''forsooth," and "Gad cooks" suggest
the inspiration many humble writ
er has found in the midnight chorus
of mis- back yard. Furthermore, these
books do undoubtedly affect the
brain as noisy and turbulent in
vasion. But we do not think that
the good, human, wholly admirable
quality of virility should be made to
bear the burden Of their delinquency.
Virility, as the common sense, non
probiem-play American understands
it, is the quality that finds express
sion in manliness, forcefulness, and
sturdiness. Books which abound in
this quality viii always be read and,
Mr.. Arthur Christopher Benson to
the contrary Notwithstanding, the
more Of 1t they portray the more
widely they ought to be read. The
tender, quiet, secret emotions" as
this critic defines them, abound in
the works of Thackeray. Yet if Mr..
| Benson hunts till this half-moon its
uncOmpleted course abandons as the
wearying logicIan 'scapes the gaping
enthymeme, he will not find any
men more truly virile than Rawdon
Crawley or Arthur Pendennis. Stew
enson was not TO be sneezed at as a
stylist. either. Yet, THE Sire de
MaletrOit's Door" is a story TO make
your blood run colder than any chap
ter of any historical novel that has
been printed in the past ten years
No, it is not virility that is the
fault It is an altogether different
quality-the quality that distinguish
es Chevalier Bayard from royster-
ing Kit Marlowe, Shakespeare from
Dryden, "Beowolf'' from "The Earth
ly Paradise bravery from brag.
Many Of our books confuse them sad
ly. 1t is hard, for example, to ad-
mire as coIorless a character as
Richard Caryel, and yet TO the au-
thor's mind he was "yirile" 10 a
high degree. What Carvel did really
have was brag. He was a pure and
simple washbuckler-and he was
one of a numerous modern company.
however garbed in the habiliments
of other days