The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1907-08-02
Physicsl Beauty In Books.

K0Yu&C8A Beauty IN DOOA0e
It is the laudable cusrom nowadays
FOR daily newspapers to print famous
stories or novels in their columns, fol
lowing the example set long since by
French journals, which make feature
Of what they call the feuilleton. The
modern newspaper covers a field sc
wide that in aiming at completeness
It must needs take account Of litera
ture also, and in reprinting the works
of Stevenson, Eugene Sue, Balzac, Kip
ling and other authors of deserved
fame it supplies an element which
many readers must value and enjoy.
But the physical aspect of these re-
prints is necessarily repulsive. The
beautiful art of the great writer is
| partly married by the shabbiness Of the
dress which it is compelled to wear.
Looking at these smeared and crum-
pied columns, we think the matter con-
yeyed by them must be not less COM
| mon and cheap When we discover in
them beauties and felicties, depths and
heights, we feel an incongruity which is
painful, to the instinct for harmony
and would almost declare that the maj.
esty of art had been profaned. Were
we to read for the first time in news
paper Keats lode to a Nightingale"
for example, the effect Of the marvel
Gus genius which there reaches its
apogee would be Sorely handicapped.
Such poem should receive its bodily
manifestation in illuminated vellum,
glowing with color and refined with
gold, and each immortal word made
outwardly lovely with the noble forms
of the old English black letter. The
spirit should be fifty housed or it fails
OF part of its legitimate influence
upon the spirit of him who reads. The
magic eloquence of Ruskin, the mascu-
line splendors of Carlyle, the exquisite
playfulness and pathoS of Lamb, the
organ music of I.andon, should come to
us adorned with robes august enough
to rhyme with their own charm. Moth
ing perhaps can ever again so well full
fill the demand of the aesthetic sense
in this respect as did the finest exam
pies Of fourteenth century caligraphy
and painting, executed by the monks
in their holy clusters. where the indi-
vidual hand and mind of the artist who
Inscribed the words could adequately
attire the meanings which he set down.
But the printing. the paper and the
{ bindings Of contemporary boolmakers
often come very close to this ideal, and
the immense popularity Of what are
known as editions &c luxe is due to the
general recognition of the accord be-
tween the body and the soul of the
literature. We handle these delicious
books with a delight somewhat akin to
that which we feel in the true rhy1ninS
of a great poem. The rhymes do not
add to the sense or alter it, but they
love and memory, and they contribute
an element of emotion which. however
subtle, is genuine and worthy. The
beauty of a rose, the grace of fawn,
the majesty of a mountain, may not
seem necessary from the merely utili-
tartan standpoint, but the sum of hui
man pleasure in them and of instruc-
ton to the human soul would be great
" lessened were they stripped away.
The converse of this proposition Is
not true-tllat the poor writing can be
compensated for by noble setting. The
dOggerel of Upper, the vulgarity of
Braddon, cannot be disguised-they are
only more markedly exposed-by gor-
geous raiment. 1t will perhaps lie
within the compass of the bookmaking
art of the future to give each eminent
writer his precisely fitting presentation,
which could rightly belong to no other.
We shall know at a first glance wheth-
er the volume contains the thoughts of
Bacon or Of Emerson, of Tennyson or
of Meredith. The beauty of the lily is
one thing and that of sunlit' waves is
another, and so one genius should not
be forced to don the habit, however in
trinsically superb. of genius of an
other caliber and purport.
Classical reprints in newspapers are
not to be condemned. They may at
least serve to prompt those who there
in read them for the first time to seek
for them in a more suitable environ
ment. But there is something cruel
and profane about them. They set on
edge the teeth of the lover of litera-
ture. They, are part Of the awaken
ing to life Of the democracy. But we
cannot but feel impatient for the day
when these preliminary methods of in
struction cease to be needed. The day
when beauty is beauty, from the hem