New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-24
Something in Heraldry.

40 one really wants to be considered
~ highbrow The term itself, as Mr. Van
Il WICK Brooks says, is derogatory. here
and there a person may be so superior as to
be fattered by the derison of the herd. I'm
dercl aduates like to think they are. But man
has to be far gone in superiority before he
relishes the notion of being avoided for its
sake. You cannot imagine man like Nietzsche
irving to prove he had heart. any more than
YOU can imagine him shooting the chutes at
Coney Island. He is the kind OF Olymplan
whose dignity seems to have been inherent.
You would Just as soon drink beer out OF porce
lam as slap Nietzsche on the back.
But the ordinary Olympian. certainly III
America. is more anxious to show he is grega-
ricus than to protect his reputation for superb
oritv and intellect. You do not have to Sian
him on the back, he slaps you. If he is runninS
for Office in particular, he wants 1t to be knowo
that blood not ice water flows through ms
veins He yearns to indicate that he is Goo7
Fellow. He tells funny stories, has himset
photographed playing pinochle, IS discovered
by his interviewer sitting at the organ singing
"home. Sweet Home" A man may have Tho
temperament Of a hermit crab in private life;
in public life he must smile cheerly when
boilermaker brushes his fingers and bellows:
Tommy, put it there There are not many
people in truth, who desire TO skewer you win
indgnity to see how well done your heart is
Bat it is bound TO happen in an American cam
paign if people suspect that the candidate lc
lofty or impractical or cold
The word "nghbrow" has 10 consistent
meaning. Hghbrow music means classic music
so.caIed difficult music. while q highbrow pc
litician means a difficult politician mainly in
the sense chat he will not always play the game
A h;ghbrow in general. to quote Mr.. Brooks
"Ainerica's Coming-of-Agc." is undoubtedly
"the superior person whose virtue is admitte!
BIZ, felt to be an inept, unpalatabc virtue, while
the 'Lowbrow' is good fellow readily takes
TO- but with a certain scorn for him and all ms
WORKS." But what makes the highbrow's virtue
incp. and unpalatable? That is where the
problem lies.
The difficulty is not with virtue itself.
man may be OF the sort that neither drinks nor
snocs nor chews nor swears; he may be o.
the sort that loves books and wears spectacles
aad yet not be highbrow. Mr. Roosevelt is
case in point What saves him from being
hiChbrow is, 70 put it scientifically, his CUTS
What makes i hard to accept the highbrow Is
not the spotessness Of his conduct but the de-
fc ency Of his sympathy. lie manages all the
more easily TO be superior because he never
risks his neck. lie may be delcrential, but he
has no intellectual humility. lie is arrogant
inside IN "The Gods Are Athirst" Anatole
France has depicted monstrous highbrow.
ard Henry James has shown one in his fas-
tiGious Osmond. The frigidity Of such men,
thor chilly Indifference combined With high
se1sibility, distinguishes them. In Lincolns
Cabinet there were such patronizirg men, and
one remembers Walter Bagchots echong tone:
"The notion Of employing a man Of unknown
srallncss at a crisis Of unknown greatness is
10 our minds simply ludicrous. Mr. Lincoln, il
is true, happened 20 be man, II not Of eminent
ability. yet Of eminent business. There was an
inner depth Of Puritan nature which came out
under suffering and was very attractive. Bui
success in a lottery is no argument for lotter-
les. What we're the chances against person
Of Ljncoln's antecedents, elected as ne wa.
ny,,ytng 10 be what he was?" This is the way
highbrow talks
The coldness Of the highbrow is not simply