Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-04-30

trOIssknr OF EnEltRh iItcraturc
a MOTHER volume of "Shelburne
4 Essays" Is always welcome and a
matter of moment to readers who care
Tor the better things in literature and
for fresh and sane views on the ten
dcncies of current thought. For Mr..
Paul Elmer More Is not only an inde-
pendent student of the past, he Is like
wise an original thinker as to things
of the present; and it is the combina-
tion Of these two Qualities which has
given him his popularity alike as the
sometime editor of what was once the
best Of our more intelligent wceklies
and as an essayist whose essays. in the
present volume reaching the eleventh
series. have become one Of the stand
ard exhibits Of the solidity and health
of American criticism. As with the
former volumes. the essays contained
in this have been vigorously contributed
70 magazines or delivered in lectures,
as that on "The Spirit and Poetry OF
Early New England" which was one
Of the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hop
kns University. The substance OF the
essays on Jonathan Edwards and
Emerson was contributed. we are IN
formed, TO The Cambridge History of
American Literature" None the less
il Is good to have fugitive writings and
utterances such rs these collected ana
revised in a form which has this hnal
sanction Of their author.
ITO DEMAND continuity in volume
l. of collected essays would be as alb
surd as n like demand of the variety
of conversation. Indeed. the essay IS
after all only glorified monologue ana
as dependent as the monologue on tne
personality OF the man who talks. MT.
More hits a happy mean between tne
familiar essay, for success in whlcn
one must be born fascinating, and the
formal essay, in which ministration al
the high affairs Of criticism demands the
sacerdotal trappings OF the, oracle
What is far more important than any
manner is the matter and the angie
from which things are observed. Mr
More has much to bring us, and nc
brings it always adequately, often de-
lightfully.
A s TO the glorifcation OF New Eng
"A land which has gone on now
steadily since the Mayhower first an
cbored in sight of that "rock- ribbed
shore cynic once remarked that II
was justified by the necessity. Inc
perfections of New England, in which
the climate must always be considered
and reprobated are tlresome in theii
rciteration the more 30 that oil these
praises are so undoubtedly based or
rock ribbed" facts. One who is no.
New Englander, except by summer
occupation. sometimes wonders whethe'
those really to the manner born pro-
test so much. But these remarks arc
irrelevant to the clear sighted discus
sions Of this part OF Mr.. More's book
However. while it may be just to con
slider the "poetry' Of Mistress Anr
Brndstreet or Urian Oakes with th'
allowance that it came out OF an un'
poetic stock. transplanted into nj
austcre climate in which only the stern
est Of the virtues theologically watere'
| could flourish still. after all, is thi
kind of versified meditation and moral
| izing really poetry at all, ana no
rather the kind of thing which mark
noetcal negation? | believe tina
Thorenu somewhere indulges in an ap
! nreciatiop Of the beauties of the musi'
Of an accordion. This passage is not
proof that Thorcau's Puritan natur
was softened by the concord Of swee
sounds. 1t merely shows that. true t.
his stock. there was no real music II
him, One thing 7 must protest. N
one of these old New England plati'
tudes in verse is comparable to, mucl
less referable in any wise to, "Nosc,
Teipsum." the fine philosophical poem
Of Elizabethan Sir John Davies. II
read one page Of Davies will settle that
But ! note there. as very rarely, Mr.
More has been betrayed by "a grea
authority" The comparison Of Mistress