New-York tribune., 1907-10-13
CDe Nem'2ln1:ls gribmrGas
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1907.

Mr. Henry james has played many fearful
md wonderful prank with the language but at
least he has never INDUCED in mere precioSity
His diction may be tortured, but it is honest
Thcre is Il shrewd note the subject in
rScribner's" this month, made by the writer of
"The Point of View" Speaking of Mr.. James'S
Ytyle he says:
1t is a style in which usual. and mostly home
spun. words are fearleSsly repeated many times
over The general effect is not homespun; 1t Is
OF great elaboration, because Mr.. James's mean
ings are not primary. and he flashes them upon
us indirectly through the maze OF many phrases:
But each phrase. taken by itself, is made up or
the sort of simple, welbred words that made
no pretensiOns
This is written aprOpos of the remarks made
by Mr.. James OH the speech OF Americans
and the commentator devOtes himself to that
subject, but the point is applicable, of course,
to matters Of authorship. Being genuine" OBJ
serves the critic lis next to being distinguished,
when it does not come before" This is pre-
tisely what is forgotten by nine out of ten OF
the innumerable writers who have tried to bOr-
row the method of Mr.. James. They are bad
enough when they merely ape his sinuosiues
and obscurties. They become fatty intolerable
when, with n queer misrepresentation of their
model they wreak themselves on all manner
of purely verbal precoSities.
There Is no satisfying Mr.. A. c. Benson, the
endless cssaylst who has unquestionably done
a quantity of good work, but who has not yet
learned the art of leaving well enough alone
A year or so ago he was absurdly plaintve, IN
print, over the shortcomings Of the critics, and
now he has returned to the subject with the
same scnsidveness and indiscrcuon. 1t appears
that Mr. Randell Charlton, writer in our Lon
don namesake recently alluded to Mr. PensOn's
work with something less than vcncTation.
Promptly thereupCn Mr. Benson wrote letter
to the paper asking why a harmless essayist
should thus have his ears boxed in public by
another harmless csSayist, and why Mr.. Charl-
ton should not extend to q fellow author the
courtesy and consideration which l am sure he
would extend 10 me in drawing ROOM" Was
there ever Il more hUmOrcSs suggestion placed
before the writing tribe? 1t seems incredible
that an author Of Mr.. Bcnson's intelligence
should need TO have explained to him so obvious
q distinction If public criticism IS to be aar-
messed to the conventions Of the drawing room
it might as well 20 out 1f business. We doubt
if that would be pleasing; To the authors Even
Mr.. Benson might regret it There is one
point, too, which authors who turn upon their
critics are absurdly apt to forget They are
not hunted down in their privacy by ruthless
ntruders. Through their publishers they DE-.
liberatey send their books to the press, and
tacity if not explicitly, ask to have them pull
lcly criticised. Nothing remains then, but for
them 10 play the game and accept with good
grace the things that are said about their work
in good faith. They cannot eat their cake and
have il too. When criticism is malicious or in
competent they have a just complaint but for
them to denounce severe CRITICISM cast in vche-
ment or satirical terms, a breach of draw
ing-room deCOrun, is mere nonsense.
The human race is in luck. 1t possesses ut
least sixteen humoriSts. That at all events is
the conclusion of Mr.. J. A. Hammcrton. who
has written Il book English TIumorsts OF
Today and actually finds sixteen writer's to
prove, as he thinks, his case. Incidentally he
makes the reader sigh for the impossible which
IS to say that conclusive definition of humor
which the ages have sought in vain TO produce
or course we are aware of the fact that no one
with 4 sense Of humOr would dream of trying to
define humOr But the instinct Of man to arrive
at some sort Of classification in this matter is
undyiTg, and books like Mr.. HammertOn's will
always provoke argument. On what legitimate
hypothesis, for example he justify his in
clusion Of Mr.. III. &. Wells in Il gallery of