The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-06

reminds one of an anecdote about Kip | ling who, by the way, has just returned | to his home in Sussex after motor | tour through Devonshre and Cornwall which lasted several weeks, and on which Mrs. Kipling bore him company. A man once, wrote to the poet some-
 what as follows: q hear you are paid at the rate of shilling word. I en- close a shilling and shall be pleased to receive one word from you by return of mail"
 Kipling sent the word. It was l"Thanksw
 A little knowledge Is said to be a dangerous thing, but so, too, is a lot of Knowledge. Writing of Andrew Ian g reminds me of one of the most extraor- dinary boolx-reviews 1t ever has been ones fortune to read. i. e., Lang's re- view of Rider Haggards She which was written for the Academy That journal re-published 1t the other day, and one began reading it with keen interest, which soon changed, however, to another feeling-amazemen To- ward the end of this review Lang said something about she tand one gath cred that he thought 1t a pretty good story). but not until he had talked a bout so many other books and authors that one had forgotten all about the romance he had set out to review. He began by quoting Coleridge, and then mentioned George Eliot and. two lines afterward, Thackeray Then he talked of "Huckleberry Finn" and Pick wick" and afterwards referred lightly to Anstey, Baudelaire, Sante Beuve, Mrs. Oliphant's "Beleagured City, and to the principles of Romanticism. Then he gave a little talk about Paradise Lost" followed by comments on The Wandering Jew.~ and references to IL Col hi ,1a,.s is a mention of Confucius, too, and quo- tat tions in French and 14atln-all very, very learned indeed--but whether any one could get an intelligent idea from 1t of what she" Is about or whether he would like to read 1t is doubtful. And that is the purpose of Il review, isn't it? This one was published. it is 15, 1887.
 Lice in Locks of Genius" If you are critic by trade, don't read this. It will hurt your feelings. Critics, it seems. are lice, (not nice word, but the one actually used by a great English poet)-"Iice In the Locks of Genius"
 Tennvson said that He said 1t in a letter to Sir Edwin Burne-Jones. the | famous painter, who showed the letter to his son, Phillip. Just what led the famous bard to speak so unkindly of the critical fraternity Sir Philip didn't explain, but, in quoting the bard's
 words. the other day, he remarked that
 he never previouslys had made them | public.
 l Burne-Jones himself had a slap at
 the critics just before starting off on s visit to Italy, apropos of what he des-
 cribed as their failure to squash the Cubists the Futurists, and Post Inn
 pressionsts all of whom are anathema
 to Sir Philip.
 l "Critics in the past have made many
 mistakes he said though the present
 day critic whether of art or of music I Is usually far better equipped than his old-time ,prototype, they still lack cour-
 d t,l.d they are afraid to condemn { freely even what they must feel to he wrong for fear a later public should ..I wnat they have condemned | Therefore, the critics. when studying
 these strained attempts at originality i hesitate to say that the new cult is
 very bad. and hint freely that there may be something in it after all | Then Sir Philip told what Tennysor | said about the critics.