The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-08-28

solu1"-t sblest ac4ts. r.ost lat.~-
raiag Il Using sr3.ic- Peal h6@
books and auy essay - cr4tlra4 tsIs-
e.-ase -~e trom him iii English pub
t,. soa SOM years aE3 q. wrote
an essay on Culisqug on Criticism
Il thinks : personal otlu44utaue-
"tl. e4 author t4tss tne -Is*- -
it.ei-fu That 4osbte@e true 1t-
les 5ou afe i malignant and ueI8i
take staE~auHe upon s.tft. res.oss tas
sans a4Fe4ty committed 4nt against
E3- ao4 iaay str4k- 5 tIlat. you
itsahs u hi E"sNtlE i fellow ( spite
'4t ways and dlStouasabl. peapeH<-
lies ~ ! du mot believe. thlt yo4
.aA plunge your lagRt into 4
man YOU rcIllE ike Mr. Esrf,ll "a
f"a canine iutpAIe q friend upon
your hook - it No4 isNei hum pge-
81 thr silly fellow WlI uutl the
mi!dest-manner.d c-iti, aul- himself
using the language " the ~lfe.
famous In story. Who was overheard
Tor not lylng still
f. viii hui il more comfortable
- discus the writer's ~ the past gen
eIdtIonS than - consider those n
ypuT imInediat. contemporaries. /
mink come II the most unsafe writer's
are the men OF } SEXTON of country
when writing u their own kin or 4c-
AZ ~ 49, AFA
led IN their judgments. and alAay
lie with nerCy's side. M. BIrreu un-
acTst0nde this perfectly. ana say
with %piquaucy n point. Why
should strike even the liospitalIeI's
held What need to reY.!e my neigh
Dor simply because he has written a
novel that makes me creep all down
my back. He will not leave of writ
Ing ecaus OF my back. bat | chow
"asily) can leave OF reading my
neighbor. and thus in time may learn
to love him"
If you would as a general thing OBJ
tain trustworthy deliycrances az To
the merits OF authors you must con-
suit the leading, teue critics who dis
Gus the literati of other times. and
perhaps Of other countries. Mi. Btr-
rell says Of the eminent critical minds
OF the eighteenth ana the nineteenth
centuries. thar Dryden. Addison.
Johnson, Coieridge HaZlitt. Lamb.
E~agehot. Arnold were great critics
who did not worry ovelmuch about
their contemporaries The fact is
they have left very little Of critical
Judgments upon their literary conteln-
poraries. Such criticism is soon lost.
This leads Birr"ll to say with his
usual who would wish 10
live enshcined in 4 sneer? The only
one Of Macaulay's Essays any sane
man would consent to lose IS his font
gomery, and though Or. Johnson's re-
view OF Soame Jenyns' Origin Of EVIL
is worth a kings ransom 1t is not a
sine qua non OF existence like his pre-
face to shakespeare While nincom-
pOOp& and critical pretenderS n men
WHO worship political hatreds. jiSe at
the great Macaulay, and slaughter him
without any pretense Of appreciation.
or sense Of justice, a critic OF the fine
parts of Rirrell easily recognizes the
splendid and almost unequalled quail
ties OF Macaulay. Some Of the English
critics are extremely we'll endowed
with the critical faculty-have in
sight. taste, candor, appreciation, pen
eration-and vet they are not by
any means infallible always III their
Judgments and safe-guides in forming
estimates. Great as he was. | think
Matthew Arnold some times veered
far from the steady, correct line of
Interpretation and opinion. 1t was
so with the very eminent Hazlitt. 1t
was SO with Lord Jeffrey. Henley, Car
lyle, and others of the past.
It is so now with such strong. adj
mirably endowed critics as Saintsbury,
Gosse. Lang. Harrison, and other am
bilious opinion deliverers in Great
Britain. one Of the greatest minds.
thinkers and essayists Of the
very fruitful nineteenth century
Was tlp 1iuSlIlouS SColtilIildil,
Thomas Carlyle. His writings are
very rich, and when you over
come the difficulties Of his eXtraor-
linary style at times, you will relish
him as you can relish but few writer's
in all English literature from the be-
ginning of prose writings in that IAN
guage. He was wonderfully acute. in
dependent. even rash and prejudiced.
and at times extraordinarily eloquent.
graphic, even poetical. Carlyle said
this: Directly in the face Of most
intellectual tea-circles it may be as
serted that no good book or good
thing of any sort shows its best face
at first; nay, that the
quality in IL true work of art, if its
have any depth and com
pass, is that at first sight it occasions
q certain OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ven mingled with its u~ndeniable
beauty a certain feeling of aversion
This applies exactly to Carlyle him
self. Let a man who never read his
numerous essays, so rich, so unique,
earned and penetrating and often
eloquent take into his hands for read
ing. to make his first acquaintance
With the marvellous Scotch author,
hat quaint work called "Sartor Re
s~artus." and what will he make Of it
what will be his first opinion, his
first feeling? 1t Will be as he said
Il DONe O. OIIltI y" u 'tI Ill - -
aversion Mr.. Birrell says felicltiously
that lit is nervous work handling the
genius which has not yet created Us
WI atmosphere l remember we'll
that nearly forty years ago 1t was
With difficulty that | could stand car
lyle, but | read often, and most Of his
writings, until | became a
generous lover Of his many German
and other essays. his superb article of
Burns, his marvellous historic work,
The French Revolution his extra
ordinary life. Of John Foster. his Lat
ter Day Pamphlets" "Sartor Resar-
four volumes of Essays, Past
and Present" Representative Men.
and his volume Of Lectures dellV-
cred in London. 4 study Of many
important writer's will cause some
times a complete change of view. and
TO you some, not before loved,
With ''hookS of steel
Let me glance for a at
opinions of two boOkS-noVelS. 10
me QUO EadiS" was a superior novel
at the time / read it with very much
| have not n my
opinion, and critics and educated
readers have thought of it in the same
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