New-York tribune., 1922-04-02

attention to the beauy and high merit
OF book one has enjoyed.
| will tell you a secret: am
neophytc in clan Of very niggard
souls. TO one robust, liberal and tol
Grant critic (and the majority of US
suspect such fellow you will find q
dozen of US who are chinche and mar
row and guarded in praise and vicious
and violent in dispraise. The trouble
is that we are haunted by an ideal of
perfection. This colors our outlook
and makes us suspicious or skcptica of
| achievement. 1t is a condition in need
of remedy. Remy de Gourmont. him
self a critic, has lamented the weak
ness of the craft with these words:
"The profes sonal critic, no matter
how much talent he may have, is
swayod by two virtues-or defects, if
you prefer: prudence and skepticsm.
| If q new book is original, it appears to
him cxtravagant. lie takes count of
the number of times the rules are
broken and tradition is floute ed, and the
more such attractions he discovers the
less he thinks Of the work. He con-
cludes by persuadiAg himself that all
great works of art have always re
spected the tradition ideas and the
tradition of form, and he rejects as
bizarre q work which otherwise fas-
cinates him. The skeptical
in lo I, ,;c
actions, is always afraid Of being taken
in; he adopts, therefore, tone of
irony and even of badinage. He shuns
enthusiasm like the pest and avoids
difficulties by an aloof smile or by a
grimace. That attitude, more or less
accentuated, is really inherent in the
profession Of cricicism, and one finds it
even in Sainte Beuve, that model and
master of all literary Judges.
His articles on Balzac and Flaubert are
there to prove that it would be a good
thing now and then to have, along with
professional criticism which is too re
lspectful toward tradition, the occa-
sional critic who arises from time to
time to say frankly what he feels and
what he thinks, without any other care
than to communicate his pleasure like
an electric charge"
Yes, we are in need Of occasional
critics who are not SO jaded with the
reading of sloughs Of mediocre books
! that they fail to discern and acclaim
an exceptional book without resorva-
ton. For the encouragement Of these
occasional critics there is to be started
in these pages a department called
"The Law Critic" where each week the
best critique received will be featured
and paid for at double our usual space
rate.
I should like to herald In these pages
! the work of the men and women whose
writings are worthy in our own age
and country. My belief In the Ameri-
can literature of the future is pro-
found. for the very adequate reason
that do not share in certain dis
paragements OF our literary achieve
ments Of the past. Whitman. Pee, Haw-
thorne Emerson, Thoreau. Lan!er,
Holmes, parkman, Paine. Franklin and
Lowell are no: names which are en-
tirely negligible. The first two are
the fathers and grandfathcrs Of sepa-
rate important litcratures which have
enriched the whole of Europe, and
three or four men IN this list have
profoundly Influenced the thought
not on1y OF our country, but of the
world. And it were fatuous to despair
of the future, when the present Is sc
full Of promise, , OF the toe
sensitive, | beg pardon for the biare.
A~.~.ssz..zssz-s<.Hsss-naEn.
LII d Thx,llinn r,aA.eL of hrehisfaric