New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-10-27
Anglo-American Literature
AND HOW ANDREW LANG DEALS 1T IN HIS HISTORY
Nv OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Copyright. 1912. by G. W. smalleyJ
London, September Il.

"
% learn in Mr.. Lans's judgments upon
.,oor writers. There would be
sveu we're he far less competent critic
- no is. The American critic
,.s detachment of view to which it is
s,4,cult for the American to attain.
pis impartiality is not detected by
ootriotic impulses. We have been
,ru,,ng 10 learn something about our
Ives and our political and social life
,roy, Mr.. Bryce and from Mr.. Bryce's
Greater predecessor, de Tocqueville,
We are not bound to accept their con-
c,usions, nor Mr.. Lang's, but their opin-
,ors are part Of the material out Of
which we make up a Judgment OF our
oun. OF Mr.. Lang's authority as critic
ssid something in an earlier letter,
He IS acute and, as rule, appreciatiVe.
We has a wide knowledge of Literature:
Greek, Latin, French, English. To say
that he has partialities and prejudices
!, onlv TO say he is human. Perhaps
bs allows himself more than the usual
share Of whimsical predictions and
sntipathies. Sometimes he seems con-
sclous Of II. Steele is an instance. For
ths writer whom Swinburne-no purist
or Puritan on any subject-calls a sen
t,u,sntal debauchee" Lang has an az
faction he does not care TO conceal. He
nuts him almost on a level with Ad-
d,son. He brackets the two as found
srs of a school. But when his literary
coincidence forces him to admit that
n.ither In style nor In thought do
steele's essays wear quite so well as
Addison's, he compromises, and says:
"Yet It is scarcely just TO draw dis
tinction which may rest only on indi-
vidual taste"
The phrase is a confession. 1t is al
most q summary of Lang's critical
method. The infexible laws which Ste.
Bsuve enacted and Matthew Arnold
adopted are not for him. The prin-
cjples Of criticism are to him plastic,
flexible or even fluid. They are per-
sonal. In the last resort he falls back
on his Individual taste" What he
likes, he likes; what he dislikes, ne
damns. II is almost a tribute TO him,
for his 664 pages are full of enlighten-
ing and instructive opinions.
But this personal note is to be kept
IN mind when we come TO consider his
estimates Of American authors. If he
condemns, it is not because they are
American. The impression one gets
Is that he is rather predisposed TO
praise. He has, of course, his favorites
but there are Americans in the front
rank whom he would reduce TO the
second. Emerson is one. He chooses
10 consider Emerson primarily as
poet; which no true Emersonian would.
He is one of Langs group of Poets
after Wordsworth" There are other
examples which suggest to the reader
that his classification is too rigid. lie
discusses Scott as Poet and Scott as
Novelist, separately. You have to COM
bine the two in order to find the COM
plete Sir Walter, and then you do not.
Two halves do not make whole. They
remain two halves. Yet Scott is one
Of his heroes; there is hardly greater,
Emerson suffers by this surgical proc
ess far more than Scott.
~ 9nU resorts
TO a subterfuge. He says his posi-
ton as poet and essayist is matter OF
controversy among the learned Of his
own country" It Is an unsettled con
troversy in which 1T does not become
an alien to interfere" But he does in
terfere. He produces American tesu-
mony: but who are the Americans? TWO
professors, Mr.. Barrett Wendell, OF
Harvard, and Mr. w. p. Trent OF Co
lumbia. Mr.. Barrett Wendell is a pro-
fessor Of English in Harvard, as Mt
saintsbury is in Edinburgh University;
a good professor dare say, but not
good practitioner. He has written
among other books, Literary History
Of America: a clumsy performance.
Emerson's Essays" he describes as
generally composed Of materials which
he collected for purposes OF occurring )
and these "he would huddle together
trusting that the truth inherent IN the
separate memoranda would give them
all together the unity implied In the
fact Of their common sincerity" Such
is Professor Barrett wendelfs felicity
Of luminous exposition. Professor
Trent's opinion of Emerson's "jargon'
bathos, lapses of taste" l quoted IN
former letter. They are the two Amer
leans, neither OF them authoritative TO
whom Lang goes for hostile vie" Oh
Emerson. In the unsettled contro-
versy' he quotes only Emerson's oppo-
nents. He proceeds to liken Emerson
English Traits" to the American
Notes" and Martin Chuzzlewit' OF
Dickens. There are not, in all the lit
erature of travel. books more unlike
than Emerson's profound and friendly
study Of England and Dickens's gro
tesque carIcatures Of America. asked
a friend Of Mr.. Lang II he had studied
Emerson or knew much about him. He
answered:
Il cannot tell you. All can tell you
Is that ne detested him"
No reader of these few pages on
Emerson could doubt 1t. But detesta-