New-York tribune., 1908-06-28
Gbe Neius2lork Crib aaness
SUNDAY. JUNE %, 1908.

f-;ond who has so often figured in these essays
he causes him to ask if with the stfening of
our joints or even before, we suffer stldenng
in the tastes. 1t is argued that tine concert Oh
having recognized genius takes the form OF
bigoted denial OF its existence save in the In
stances recognized This conceit does not admit |
the possibility of error or omission in the
search" The occupant of the Easy Chair
denies this. 'SThe fact is" he says that the
tastes are never so tolerant, so liberal, so gen
erous, supple as they are at that time OF lie
when they begin, according to your notion, to
stiifen, to harden, to contract" In ILLUSTRATION
Mr. HoweIls makes some confessions. After
stunning Anthony TroOpe for fifty years., he
says. I'VE came to him, almost as with a rush,
long after our half century was past, and he
adds that he reads this author with a con-
stancy and recurrence surpassed only by our
devotion to the truth as it is in the ictiCn of
the Divine Jane" Neither Charles Reade nor
George Eliot, appears so mastery as we once
thought them both, though each is far greater
than the present generation realizes" But Mr..
Howellss most significant disclosure relates to
his feeling about Thackeray. In Barry Lyn-
don" he finds IAN irony as keen and graphic as
anything in fiction" and his pleasure in the
book inspires resolve ito return to Thackeray's
vision of his own contempOraneOuS English
world at the first opportunity
In alludng a few weeks ago to the death OF
nj. Emile Gebhart spoke of his brilliant
demonstration Of the fact that scholarship and
Imagination may work together in perfect hac
mOny. His colleague in the French Academy,
NJ. CASTOR Bosser who has since died, a
similar type. This scholar may be said to have
Passed his life citizen of the ancient Roman
world. breathing its airs, assmlating its ideas,
and, in fact making its genius his own. Yet
when he put pen to paper he wrote as man of
his own time, appealing to his contemporaries
in terms which were Immediately and most en-
Gagngy Illuminating In the beautiful book
which he published years ago, "Ciceron ct ses
amis,'' he struck note of f1exiblity and sym
pathy which he never abandoned. His learning
was immense, but he would not allow 1t to
lessen that play of light and movement which
he regarded essential to any reconstruction
of the life of the past. The great Latin states
men and authors were not, for him, cold figures
IN museum Of archaeology but living human
beings with passions and humors making them
akin to ourselves Literature is the poorer
through the death of NJ Boissier, not simply be-
have no more studies like
those that he made Of Cicero and Tacitus of
Sant-Simon and Madame de Sevigne, but be-
cause we are deprived Of precious example
His life was given to the enforcement of the
distinction between art and pedantry.
The Rev. Alfred ]. Church. who has just
published his Memories Of Men and Books
has been reviewer OF the staff Of the London
Spectator" for forty years. In these recollec-
ti0ns he records that he has dealt with an
average of three books day, or, in round num-
bers. about thousand a year. 1t is easy to
imagine the emotions Of an author on reading
this confession. Il told you So," hear
him murmur. "YOu remember how my master
piece slated? Now you can see why. How
can any man. reviewing books at that rate, do
more than look at the binding, the frontispiece
and the preface? Well, I've always said that
reviewers never read the books they undertake
to appraise with such authority" Nevertheless
would be inclined to back Mr. Church
against the disgruntled author. There is, after
all nothing mysterious alarming about his
record, nothing to suggest superfciality or in
Justice. There is many book whose character
can be aScertalned in an aStoniShngly short
Space OF time. The experienced reviewer not
only knows how to get at the bones of book
without waste of time or energy, but he becomes
proficient in reading with extraordinary rapid
ity The author is apt to think that his work
requires to be pondered for days and that dis
cuSsi0n of it should be elaborate and exhaustive
10 this the retOrt is obyOuS-it all depends
upon the book. The incompetent reviewer, rush
lug through his task, is Of course indefensible.
But the critic who knows his art is not to be
doubted simply because he reviews thousand