The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-10
sennslaIs in Eitsrasure.

The world has been strangely slow to learn from experience the wisdom of allowing the dead to rest. The fn- function Inscribed on 6hakespeares tomb is of universal application. Tne only aspect of an artists personality with which the world has any concern is that which is manifested in ms work. What ia not so manifest 1t is unnecessary to know, and frequently is better unknown
 Shakespeare was fortunate in that ne had no contemporary biographer. There are few details of his life re- corded, to interfere with one enjoyment of the great, broad record or his char z acter that is written in his plays. we feel in them the impress Of DE: wholesome, natural personality, and that sufices us. Antiquarian contro- versy over dates and documents IS put "digging the dust" :.
 we should probably be happier if we knew as little of any of our great poets as we know Of Chaucer and or Shakespeare. Literary biography is worse than useless if it be not abso- iuteiy true. and if 1t be so It is nkeiy pleasant. However 1t may Interest the psychologist, It's service to literary ap- preciation is questionable.
 Could anything be more unprofitable than controversy over the remains Of f,nfeadio Hearn. The comparatively few who know Hearn's work and have recongnised its. qualities care little about the personality Of the man. lt was obvious that his was not normal vielon. a well ordered attitude toward fife. They felt no desire to know the artist. ft wab in the pictures he paint ed that they took delight. No doubt thA record of his curious career had certain pathoiogical interest; but when you began to relate a story like this at what arbitrary point gre you to stop? It would have been better to eorbear. For now A vast number z ez people who never read q iine of Henfn's viii be reading so much about him and his faiIings that they will never come 10 any right understanding Of his achievement of what kind of an artist he really was.
 The incident recalls the foolish dis cunslon that ls still going on as 70 the precise degree of drukenress 70 be charged against Poe What diner- innawine from poe's writings that he was not a man of extreme scbrtety; but. whatever conclusion we reach as to his personal habits. the poems and che tales remain prescis0ly the same why not be content with themf
 Nearly every recent biography or an important literary man has led to con troversy Forster tried to tell the truth about Dickens. and Froude about Car Iv1a ana we all remember the result After the battle suoalded. people re surned reading Diskens and Carlyle but they had to learn to forget Forster and Froude before they could renew their old enjoyment. There have been biographical outrages, like the publi- cation of the love letters of Keates that have left an impression almost lnanossIble fo effaee.
 Thackeray judged soundiy in forbid ding a biography. though hie was 2 wholly endearing personality. He felt that the world was concerned only with his kwork, not with his private life. But we have all become so curl ous about personal details that we give mo reattention to scandal concerning an artist than to the art work that, if we but studied it, has power to make us glad.