The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-04-09

the Virginia professors ridicule-vax
the s~ingulariy ideaiiSic traneceuden,-
alist whose inner voice forbade HIM
10 modest canker-worms or to plant
such vegetables as would grow down
ward instead Of upward. That nr.
Smith points out a weakness OF trans
cendentalism-its anti-sociai tendency
will surprise only those who ara
blind TO the whole course of the
worlds thought during the last fort.
years.
"A Brief for Southern Culture.
So much for the New York Times
reviewers wild fancy that DR.. smith
has missed the kernel of faith and
aspiration and courage. The other
allegation is that the Virginia pro
fessor' has failed to tell what Amer
leans have achieved 10 a nation. that.
instead of this, he seems to have used
his mission to hand in 4 brief on he
half of Southern culture. as distinct
from Northern-lack OF culture"
DR.. Smith has not neglected to tel
his German audiences VIA the Amer
lean people have done in literature AZ
a nation. He has not neglected this in
his Of Franklin. Of Mark
Twain, Of Cooper. Of Longfellow, or
Of the shOrt-story writer's. Is II pos
sible tina the New York Times writer
has read DIR. Smiths lectures. CT did
he consider that a work or superero-
CATION?
DR.. Smith has clearly been at con-
siderable pains to give the Germans
adequate accounts Of two Southern
writer's. Poe and Harris. In the case
of Poe, let it be remembered that
leaving aside all question OF his I'M
%portance among American writers
Poe has a unique interest TO foreign
ers, and that he has been widely in
fuential in world-literature during the
last six or seven decades. AS for .loei
Chandler Harris and the negro as lit
erary material, it may be that Or.
Smiths judgment of Uncle Remus.
His Songs and Sayings" is excessively
enthusiastic, or it may not be. That
Is neither here nor there. But the
negro as literary material is clearly a
subject worth the careful treatment
which DR.. Smith has given it. This
lecture is in some particulars one OF
the most valuable in the book it con-
tains a rich fund Of matter which is
elsewhere scattered or Inaccessible.
To the foreign readers Of American
literature. it may be that the ante
bellum negro will one day be as inter-
esting as Cooper's Indians used to be-
An inevitable election to the accu-
sation Of sectional bias put forward
in the New York Times Book Review
is that Dr.. Smith has discussed the
southern writer's, Poe and Harris in
particular, not as Southerners, but as
Americans: not for the honor they
have done to the South, but for their
services to America and the world,
any one who will read attentively DR..
STnlthS lecture on the American
Short-Story will see that DR.. Smith
mas spoken not at all for one section,
but tor the nation. In the suggestion
that 'Dr. Smith seems to nave used
his mission to hand in a brief on be-
half or southern culture, as distinct
from Northern-lack of culture The
Times writer was playing to the gal
leries.
DR.. Smith a acknowledgement Critics
1t is not necessary to do more thar
mention the criticism Of the Times
writer hat everything in DR.. Smiths
book which can be recognized as gen
u1ne criticism deals with surface I'D
alone; that DR.. Smith is !.
morphological' critic, Who has moth
ing to offer us in the way OF "physiol-
oglcaf' Or psychological, criticism.
Inc Times writer must not expect
people to take him seriously. not even
when he sounds learned.
Idle AMERIkANISCHE LITER
AUX, Won DR.. G.. Alphonso Smith.
ForleSungen gehalten an der koen-
lgilchen Observation-Disclosures
slteat "a Berlin, Workmanship Buch-
nandlung. Berlin, 1912,
"H