New-York tribune., 1908-08-02
SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 1908.

TIE literary character of the late Thomas
Bailey Aldrch is delightfully."- illustrated in the
sheaf of letters which the author of his forth
coming biography Mr. Ferris Greenslet has
embodied in an essay in 'The Century for
August In matters of poetic form Aldrich
surely qualified to speak with some authority
and we are especially interested to note his
observations on Walt Whitman in a couple of
letters to Stedman- IN the face of all that has
been said by the pious and windy hierophants
of the Camden eccentric have always main
tanned that he was not poet, save in two or
three rare moments. Here are some Of Aldrich'S
sayings about him:
The greater bulk of his writing is neither |
prose verse, and certainly it is not i'm |
provement either. A glorious line now and
then, and a striking bit of color here and there
do not constitute a poet-especially poet for |
the People. There never was poet so calcu-
lated to please very few Whitman's |
manner is a hollow affectation, and represents
neither the nor the time. AS the voice OF
the nineteenth century he viii have little sig
nitcance in the twenty-first- That he will out
last the majority of his contemporaries,
haven't the fantest doubt-but it will be in a |
glass case a quart of spirits in an anatomical
museum. ! don't believe a chariatan can
be a great poet couldn't beileVe II II were
convinced of it!
The Whitmaniacs when you get them in a
corner are fond of citing this or that shining |
light in their sect though that settled the |
question. Adrich refused to be thus impressed
al place less value than you do," he writes, ION |
the Endorsement of Swinburne, Rossetu & Co,
inasmuch as they have also indorsed the very |
moor paper of -" Not all the pontifical |
eul0gy in the world could turn Whitman into a
poet. The truth is that it is not by any means
mere question of form alone. He did not have
the root of the matter in him. One Of the best
of Adrichs critical remarks is this: "If Whit
man had been able Che was not able for he |
tried it and faiIed) to put his thought into
artistic verse, he would have attracted little or
attention perhaps"
Why is it that ''culture' is not, in these mod
ern times quite the widespread possession that
1T ought to be? The world is full Of the ma
chinery of instruction The world Is full of
books, and multitudes of genuinely ambitious |
men and women of all ages are reading them
Why then is culture anything but the mark OF
our epoch? A writer in the London Nation"
will have of the explanation that is COM
monty offered, namely, that people are hopelessly
engrossed in the satisfaction of the senses and
the making of money. 'It is not materialism or
commercialism," he says that here is chiefly |
to blame, but the refusal Of the directors and
shareholders of culture to submit to an audit
and reaSseSsment of cultural values In
other words the cultured person is too often the
Superior Person, the Pharisea who prides him
self on belonging to a close corporation. Such
type, whether in private life or. a worker in |
the field of letters, can have no substantial in
fuence As the writer just quoted shrewdly
observes, culture itself needs purging Of not
few elements Of artifce and precosity which it
has acquired by too exclusive association on the
hand with academic caste, on the other
with the recreative life Of the leiSured classes
Lovers of Shakespeariana must have warm
welcome for the little book which Mr.. Walter
Raleigh has just published, johnson Shake
Bpeare." The great mans edition Of the poet
was displeasing, as is well known, to Macaulay,
but it contains, nevertheless, any number of
JohnsOnSmS that worth preservation, and it
a good idea to bring these together in con-
venient form. subject of lively interest to-day
is enthusiastically dealt with in the following
passage
I could have written longer notes, for the art
of writing notes is not of difficult attainment
The work is performed first by railing at the
stupidity, negligence ignorance, and asinine
tastelessneSs Of the former editors, and show
ing from all that goes before and all that fol-
lows the inelegance and absurditity of the old !
reading; then by proposing something which to
superficial readers would seem speciOus, but
which the editor rejects with Indignation; then
by producing the true reading, with long
paraphrase and concluding with loud acclama-
tions the discovery, and a sober wish for the /
advancement and prosperity Of genuine criti-
ciSm