The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-21

III
human nature than the esti-
mate Of greatness which pre-
,,i,s and is so ~curiously different
rom the English and European stand
"a As a rule, a peoples W esti-
nate OF It's great men Is anything but
nfalihle: a nation selects some man
a fivorite because he represents
rscia, characteristics and passions. or
lands for a great national victory
.,me intrinsic or extrinsic fact that
,npeals to the many.
Tho standard in the United States
9 more peculiar. I had almost said
more "nrovincial," than 1t is in any
ruropean country. The Frenchman's
,dora,ion ~ Victor Hugo, and modl-
fed esteem for Balzac. is corrected
nc the fairer judgment Of England.
Italy and Germany, or rather by thai
NJ, the ablest men in these countries.
Rut IN time France alone IL left to
herself would come to the right judy
mont but one has no such GER
,ainty in regard to America.
The note Of pr~ovincialism in Amer
lean letters is struck in New York in
various ways: on the one hand there
Z OffGn an dtdL'IlllN substl III w
English opinion, good or bad. which
Is childish: on the other hand. a
purely American estimate which
sometimes insists or second rate men
as first rate and sometimes ignores
great men altogether or regards them
az more or less ordinary folk. In the
course Of this paper I shall consider
chiefly American false estimates,
leaving academic echoes to die out OF
themselves.
when | visited New York some
little time ago I was seriously asked
by the reporters whether I did not
regard Mark Twain as among the
greatest If men and Longfellow as a
chief ~ poets. I replied casually that
did not consider Mark Twain q
great man in any sense of the word.
and certainly not a great man of let
tiers: he seemed to me a humorist
u the same class as Irwin Cobb;
raough not exactly of the same quail
ity. To my establishment I was at
tackled and reviled on every side for
this modest expression of opinion.
No one will think I am doing Mark
Twain a d!sservice in comparing him
with Dickens, To my mind Dickens
showed as keen a sense of the ridicu-
lous In his ~caricatures as Mark Twain
did in his peculiarly American humor.
and there can he no doubt that he
was a better artist and more gifted
writer. Yet for some reason or other
I don; care much for Dickens. or
rather ! didn't care much for him
when ! read him as a boy: and my
youthful impression was so strong
that ! couldn't attempt his works
again in order to revise the judgment.
But though Dickens Is a national
dol in England, much as Mark Twain
s in Amerca. one Is able to say in
England mat one can't read Dickens
and that Dickens was not a great
man without Being abused; some
Englishmen no doubt take il as prov
NC a sort Of blindness on my part;
hut herewith the disagreement ends.
Educated people are not intolerant
4 original opinions. even though at
Hrst blush they seem startling or alb
Surd. Education ought to make us
openm.nd.d and incline us to well
CON new views: but many American
journalists treat Mark Twain as a
sort Of national idol and appear to
believe that because they admire him
he must - really a great man. The
literary executor Of Mark Twain, a
gentleman whose name I forget and
whose name no one on the other side
" TIE Atlantic had ever heard of, de-
clared that I was a "small man." and
quoted against me Rudyard Kip
iing's opinion. who called Mark Twain
the god'ike Clemens and assured
the word at large hat his idol was
Of the same class as Cervantes.
We forgive all this in Mr.. Kipling.
knowing that he himself was enthu-
siast!cal'y praised by the late Samuel
l.. Clemens and was almost compelled
therefore 10 return the compliment;
and when he returned it by compar-
ing Clemens with Cervantes 1t was
only an outhurst of his immense he
torical faculty, To be explained by the
fact that he knows very little about
Cervantes or he would never have
done such aisservice to the maker OF
'Hu"kioberry Finn" and Tom Saw
yer as 10 compare him with the
rreator = Don QuiXote and Sancho
Panzd. Similarly ventured 10 say
that Lougfe.low had not written a
line q poetry. that he was an excel
Ient specimen of the verse maker OF