New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-10-20
Ans lo-American Literature
AND HOW Mr.. ANDREW LANG DEALS WITH HIS HISTORY
OF LITERATURE.
Copyright. 1912. by G. W. smalley1

| bIo"HlnB, WnOm roe ana Emerson ana
Lowell follow, all in the same chapter
! as Poets After Wordsworth" The
blend is still more intimate when Haw-
thorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes are
treated among --latest Georgian and
Victorian Novelists" in company with
ThaCkeray and the Bronte sisters and
with R. l.. Stevenson himself, for whom
Lang thinks no praise good enough.
l do not mean to suggest that Lang
meant to do less than justice to Ameri-
can writer's. The scope of his book
may have made 1t impossible to give
a complete account of them. But since
he invites his readers to consider
Americans as contributors to the Lit
erature Of the English Language, he
might well enough have taken more
comprehensive glance over the Ameri-
can ield. He has dealt with Claren-
don not only as a historian but as a
| statesman: with Burke as orator and
political philosopher; with Bolingbroke
and Swift in dual capacities. Accept
son Cor emitting from any sketch OF
! American Literature the author Of the
Gettysburg Address and the Second In
augural? Is there anywhere any nobler
literature than those two pieces? or Is
Lincoln a less eminent figure than any
! English contemporary?
Nay, if political effect is to be reci-
oned, as Lang does at times reckon it,
test Of literary Importance, does not
President Clevelands Venezuelan mes
sage deserve line? I admit that Mr.
| Cleveland had no sense Of literature
| and was incapable Of writing English,
| but his message was a menace of war
| and would have brought a war with
England had 1t come from any other
| than an American pen, Let him have
| his due. And then our friend Colonel
| Roosevelt, who has written iEnumera-
| bic volumes full Of vast, various and
sometimes correct information, and in
Vulnerable state papers Of unexampled
verbosity; who is a master Of common
| places and. Of course, invective-he
surely ought 70 have a niche to him
self, since none but himself can be his
| parallel or is it a proof of Mr., Lang's
| good will TO us that his tribute to both
! Cleveland and Roosevelt is a tribute Of
silence?
! No doubt these are matters OF con-
! troversy The memory of Mr.. Cleve-
land is venerated in the office Of THE
Century Magazine" and Colonel
Roosevelt has fervent followers among
men who look on politics as a game Of
baseball But from controversy Mr..
Lang does not shrink. lie delights in
| it. He has many a shrewd thrust at
men whom he dislikes, whether Eng
| lish or American. He was never rec
! luse. He never stood too stiffiy on
| mere civilities. on suitable provoca-
| ton he could be rude in private life
and rude in print. He remarks that
| Milton, though the proudest Of men,
! answered railing with railing. Mr..
Gosse tells US that Lang. pestered by
a pretender who wanted 10 discuss
J Pascal, turned on him with a John
sonian rebuff: sir I never heard OF
/ Pascal" If you did not accept his gos-
! pei of Mary Queen Of Scots you were
anathema. If you did not canonize
Jeanne dare, you were reviled and in
suited even though you were Anatole
! France and the first Of living French
writer's. When he did not like so ad-
mirable an author as Lander he would
say Of him. as a lesser critic said, that
he "drones." with a grudge against
Emerson which he preferred to father
| on somebody else, he would quote Pro-
lessor Trent of Columbia University
as authority for the opinion that Elmer
son as prone to jargon, TO bathos, to
lapses OF taste" To quote is familiar
weapon of controversy. 1t implies that
the person quoted has authority. All
things considered, Mr.. Lang Is not
likely to have excluded President
Cleveland or ex-President Roosevelt
because they were, or are, topics OF
controversy. He may have bethought
himself that his was History OF Lit
erature.
It is pleasanter to turn from omis-
sIons and animosities TO critical est-
mates and TO say that there is In Mr..
I.ang's book little or nothing to sug-
pest that ne had dislike Of American
| Literature because it was American.
do not think he had, and in another
letter 1 will return to an examination
for which to-day / have left myself no
space. TO clear the ground, / Will say
that Mr.. Lang gave his History, Amer
lean history included, TO the English
public at time when English good
will TO America had, according to the
| English themselves, been tried as II
had never been tried since 1885, when
Mr.. Cleveland launched his wantoh
threat of war on account OF Venezuela
associate myself with none of their
Grievances. / only recite them.
II is a long series. 1t began WIN
what WAS known in America and here
as the political dog fight Mr.. Koose-
velt's broken pledges, his betrayal OF
bie marty and his friend the President
and the language he used, alienated
English opinion, and what was left or
english regard for him. Then came
80 lNn . a MI