The sun., 1919-08-31

"Old and New Masters"

THE writer of the present review
Il took up Robert Lynd's Old and
NeaU MGsters out of sense of duty; he
laid it down, having read every word
of it, with sense of gratitude. 1t woull
have been easy to glance through half
dozen Of the twenty-seven articles and
write eomplacently of the whole book;
but we plead guilty to feeling of unusual
interest in these stray book reviews. To
adopt one of Mr.. Lynd's tricks of criti-
cism, we may say that be is not philosophi-
cally profound, brilliantly clever or start
ingly original; and yet he is an abe
critic, one of the ablest in the younger
generation that counts among its members
such men as W. L. George, John Palmer
and Gilbert Canaan.
Mr.. Lynd has found as many new an
interesting things to say about Jane
Austen and Wordsworth, Keats and
Browning, as about James Elroy Flicker
and 7. NJ. Kettle. His point of view, if
not startling, is at least interesting. His
method, is always TO seize upon some par
ticular idea that occurs to him apropos Of
the work he is to review and develop it
in his own way. His articles, it will be
seen, are more in the nature of disquisi-
tions than strict reviews. The subject of
Dostoevsky, for example, offers him tie
thesis that Dostoevsky's visible world was
a world of sensationahsm' in writing Of
Wordsworth he pleads on behalf of the
young poets political activities; Keats,
he maintains, was turned into man of
genius by his association with Fanny
Brawne.
But one turns TO the essays on James
and Masefeld, Conrad and Lady Gregory
with an even keener zest. The three more
or less closely associated papers on Henry
James are very attractive. Speaking Of
the Americans enthusiasm as recorded in
one of the photographed volumes. he
says: "He was enthusiastic about the
waiter in the coffee room in the Liverpool
hotel chiefly as an illustration of the works
of the English novelists."
The Fame of J. N. Synge is character
istic of the reaction against an over
enthusiastic and indiscriminate hymn OF
praise. What Mr.. Lynd says about
Synge's style is reasonable, but after re-
reading the first act OF The PIdyboy We
find his structures uneonvineing. However,
we suspect Mr.. Lynd Of agreeing with us:
that no matter what the defects of his
style, Synge is one of the great modern
writers. Perhaps he felt it incumbent
upon him to put bounds TO a sort of over
estimation which is Only foo evident ic
the mass of Synge literature.
We could quote clever and striking SEN
fences IN proof of Mr.. Lynd's acumen,
but we leave this game to the reader. We
shall lift but one. In speaking Of line
from Masefeld's Dauber-"My Lord, my
God, how beautiful it is" he adds: "a
line like this, indeed, is merely prose that
has learned the goose-step of poetry"
The essay on Conrad lacks what makes
Mencken's essay on the same subject the
best we know: philosophical insight. But
Robert Lynd's two papers afford one j
more comprehensive view of the style and
methods of Conrad than can be found in
any other study, long or short, that has
yet appeared. Quite the elearest and
best statement on Conrads indirect mar
rative is this: ''He pauses frequently t.
impress upon us not only the romance %
the fact he is stating but the romance of
the circumstances in which somebody dis
covered it."