New-York tribune., 1918-09-08


interestingly on this sub;eo.
in "The Nation" He wb;-,
sically discusses the possible rum;ns
tions Of "cicerone Of the classics" w,o
finds his charges restive and bored undo,
pressure of the time-honored Survey Of
English literature" Offer Mase6e,d
Masters, Vachel Lindsay, and the atros
phere clears. But can even these f~..u.
mates hope to survive? Mr. Graho
writes:
Perhaps the instructor, if-improbablv
enough-he be possessed of Imagination.
dips into the future az far as eve can 90.
and contemplates college class thirty
year hence when he, haply, may be reread-
ing the old books in the comfortable leisure
provided by his hard-earned pension. Per.
haps in that new age the watchdog of .bs
poetic treasury will be vainly endeavoripe
to interest a class in the older poets-tbe
pre-revolutionary group, Masefeld, Gibson
Masters, Lindsay, perchance. The class ;s
bored. Give something new cry the
class, something We can understand. So
the instructor is obliged-for the point !.
of course, put to vote and carried By
majority--to read Cleans by Berensky.
the Chicago 'Ultimist,' and 'Wrack,' BIZ
Smith, the aeronaut poet whose 'Skyscapes'
and Night Fragments have But cult.
ure? These are horrid imaginings.
SIT is probable, of course, that the his
tory of literature will by this time have be.
come subdivision of paleontology and be
upon firm scientific basis. The literature
of the past, fossil literature, will be ap-
propriately classified and exhibited in
museum of books provided for that purpose.
the specimens to be handled by experts
only, though q curious public may view the
showcases on Saturday and Sunday after
moons upon payment of small fee The
exhibits will be classified into varieties of
the same species most closely related.
species of the same genus less closely and
unequally related, forming sections and
sub-genera, species of distinct genera much
less closely related, and genera related in
different degrees, forming sub-familes,
families, orders, sub-classes and classes
The arrangement will be in accord with
descent The mutation theory of de Vries
will account for the births of new sneces.
thus greatly simplifying the study Of the
romantic movement, wayward child OF the
classical age; and naturalism, 'self-con-
trolled epileptic fed exclusively on proof
spirit the unnatural offspring OF roman
ticism and realism. But aesthetic and moral
criteria will happily be defunct No one
will prate longer of the best novel of
Thackeray or the second best any more
than one would speak of more or less
beautiful lepidosiren or a good or bad
ornlthorhyncus. And this will be grateful
relief. Living literature will, naturally, be
the study of biology and will be cultivated
like guinea pigs for purposes of vivisecton.
Each one of Us may have his own family Of
pets, of course, for I am not one who be-
lieves with many that scientific study dries
all the springs of natural affection.
Should the publication of books be con-
tlnued IN the new a2e-I should prefer
their circulation in manuscript-they will
not be reprinted after ten years; at tie
end o. thirty ali copies will be Withdrawn
from circulation and pulped save the few
specimens reserved for museums Think o.
the conservation of our spruce forests
And how spacious and uncluttered tins
world of thought One desiring q tragedy
will write it. II an ode, he Will compose it,
unhampered by recollections of Pindar
Cowley, Wordsworth, Keats He will, haply,
never have heard those bits of felicitous
phrasing trailing clouds OF glory and
magic easements opening on the foam of
perilous seas o joy! TO be poetic em0er
in that new time. The tyranny OF books
viii then be extinct as the tyranny of kings.
Literature will have been democratized.'