New-York tribune., 1918-04-21
No-the Light Has Not.
Gone Out Yet
1t May Look, Sometimes, as Though There Isn't Much
Good Prose Being Written Nowadays, but Let's Con.
slider the Matter Carefully

are born as are the heaps Of faith. h.,
credulity which later become thu srn~ No. .ao
circulations Of the picture papers. N. hSus ..S
larity of - and and - s,s s'pu-
willing material for the careers ~ sne
statesmen and the glory Of great war, sss 81
it is likely that when we do see for a. ~
first time prose as it should be we m., s.e 80
know it and may not enjoy it. It ia i;l.,s
to be very improperly disrespectful to ~
even blithely ignorant Of what we thint 'a =
good; and as in addition we shall fee, - -
smaller mind overborne by the pu,v,;s.
activity and cool force of the greater a.
superiority will only add to our coroplain;ns.
grief. 1t takes time to get used to il os
the other hand, OF course, there are such a.
Dickens and Balzac.
erary societies studying style for the cooa
Of good prose. That game is worse thsa
going back to ping-pong. These circle. srs
so entertaining and instructive, thew ara ~
bookish, SO keen about the curiositiea =,
literature. They soak too much in Brown
Lamb, Hazlitt and Ruskin. 1t spoils +ha;s
native styles, and puts editors on WHOM
they try it in peril of their immortal soul,
Those who can write, and don't car.
whether you know it or not turn from H.
erary circles as from the breath of n.
grave. They blench at the word Art When
we are reminded that even Stevenson con.
fessed to being 'sedulous ape it is easv
to guess that he was merely gay about b;s
early and consuming alterations. Anyhowa
he did not become writer for that rea,on
NTHERE is prose being written to.d.y
L as fine as anything in our past
Why, can recall three reviews during the
last six months, no further off than The
Nation and concerning nothing more than
the books Of other men, which in prospect,
knowledge and craftsmanship were much
better than what is usually found in the
older essayists. There was Havelock Ellis
on the place Of Conrad in our literature Of
ships and the sea; the trst justification Of
that master Of English / have seen which
hit on the principal reason for our indebt-
edness, as maritime people, to Conrad
"And there was G. B. S. on Belloc and the
Press; and an anonymous writer who threw
a cheerful beam on G. K. C. as an historian.
Three casual efforts, done in the course Of
the days work, the job as it offered itself,
wrought with JOY, accomplished with ease
and distinction. AS one read them, things
became palmer in a world that had
brighter and higher sky and more dis
tant horizon. They were finished, and the
mind felt it retained a better outlook |
think that must mean good prose. Certainly
it cannot be done on potatoes. But if 1t
does mean nothing from which these years
may get any consolation, if we may not see
in it the assurance that the light in the
sanctuary is still there, nor feel we have
here reason for confidence in the value Of
what is good in our own day, then think
literature is worse than marbles. At least,
am free to my own opinion that such stuff
would serve the purpose of the sedulous
better than Lamb on Roast Pig or Ruskin
on Sesame and Lilies or discussing
whether Johnson really ate too much in the
Cheshire Cheese, because it would show
they had a suspicion that between life and
letters there may be veins and ligaments
"No. The light has not gone out yet
The time in which Thomas Hardy lives,
which saw Youth published in magazine
(though it took little notice of it,, which
had Chance given to it the other day, which
is privileged to have a book now and then
from Bertrand RUSSELL which witnesses the
characteristics in being of Shaw, Chesterton,
Belloc, which recently confessed the ARABIA
Desertia' splendid effort, and has thou
sand young soldiers of dread experience and
much learning whose idle pens even now
are sparkling with suppressed energy, such
days are not badly off, if good writing could
bring US to salvation"