New-York tribune., 1906-12-23
Gbe Gem1211prIs Gribmsas.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER %, 1906.

There has recently been some trouble In the
English courts over certain letters written by
Charles Lamb. The right TO publish them was
sold to Smith & Elder who brought them out in
1S9S, returning the originals to the owners.
Mr.. and Mrs Steeds. Five years later the
Steeds sold the manuscripts to Dent Co.,
yhereupon Smith & Elder, and the Macmllans.
Nho had acquired interest in the matter,
sued to restrain republication of the letters.
This suit has been upheld. Now the interesting
thing is that the SteedS, while lawful prOprie-
TORS of the letters, were not lambs executors,
Whereas the Dents were able to produce some
one to act as his administrator. The comment of
-The AthenPum," in which the whole business
Is traversed, is suggestive: 1T looks very much
like decision that the receiver of letter may
publish it after the writer's death without the
permission Of the writer's representatives. This
IS in the view OF many literary men evil re
Quirng further legislation" Readers well
as writer's will have this feeling Letters are
Banded about nowadays with altogether too
much freedom. We have known cases in which
communications from writer's still living, full
OF perSonalia never intended for any eyes save
those of the recipient, had been sold to a dealer
In autographs carelessly as though they were
30 many printed books
Once more the question of Juvenile reading
Is on the carpet. According to 'The Academy
some one has been remarking that they consid-
cred Jane Austen too grown-up for a girl OF
fourteen, and this Is justly resented. "In a
sense, of course, she is" runs the retort, "just
as Plato is too grown-up for a schoolboy Of
thirteen; but the schOOlboy can enjoy what he
can grasp of the Plato, and the girl will enjoy
what she can grasp of the Jane Austen And
IT is, in our opinion, much better for q child to
read Jane Austen OF some other book above
his intelligence and understand q little than to
A. hoIo l,Er HrAnt
stand ii all" This is common sense One
would suppose that by this time the virtue of
browsing among the classics in childhood had
got itself recognized everywhere Even the
povelists have fallen into the habit of educating
their heroes and heroines in this way. The old
library in which the boy or girl is allowed to
roam at will is almost familiar a property"
IN modern fiction as the lost will or the mis-
understanding that keeps the lovers apart
Through three or four hundred pages Yet pre-
sumably experienced mortals go expressing
their doubts as to the advisabIlity of putting
serious literature into the hands of the young.
We would like to hear of the child who ever
came to harm through losing himself in the
pages of Shakespeare or CervanteS. He would
be portent indeed Such reading has abso-
1utely no dangers whatever. Innocence has a
panoply of its own and passes unscathed
Through those parts of the classics which might
seem to be inmical to its integrity. Meanwhile
the happy young reader lives IN an atmosphere
of romance and beauty, is thrilled by the whole
some passion of great Deeds and acquires, un-
consciously, feeling for splendid diction.
Sometimes we wonder If the people who object
TO Shakespeare, for example, for the young are
not unfortunates who never knew, themselves
the joy of reading him when the whole world
was fairy place
'SThe Time Love" the left unfinished