The mirror., 1923-06-21
INSPISSATIONS
By DeriM Lonihil

doubtless afhrm. Yet, however that may
be, few things can pretend to greater
enervations than an opinionated writer
forever hurting invectives into an unecho-
ing void. AS an encouraging rustic to the
jaded nerves of The Young Intellectuals,
and because time has whispered that too
many errors become a nuisance, this
Causerie appears
The literary Renaissance which seems
to be going on in the columns of The
MIRROR has provoked comment from the
outside as we'll as among the contributors,
and for that reason it is to be sanctioned.
For the significance lies in the tendency
to observe and classify, to segregate and
remodel the aspects of life as they are
presented before the eye or in memory.
And so long as this process continues the
results can be borne. 1t is only when,
because of an unbalanced energy and
knowledge, the critical faculty that the
results of a new or recurring movement
is harmful. And this habit of binding
criticism and through it the artist, who
should be free, by immobile standards OF
contrast and perception is as regular pro-
cedure with les jeunes as with the older
generation.
The fact is that youth is forever coming
on, revolving against the habits and ira
ditions of the environment, wearing away
outworn functions here and replacing
them there, and finally settling down to
enjoy the fruits of their assimilation and
conquest, only to witness their ediflce be-
ing attacked and plundered anew by the
oncoming generation. And it is normal
rrocess-one might say the normal state
of life. But what diverse methods OF
attack are, used, what multitude OF mis-
takes in approach and aim are employed
that change may take place
Here, in the solitude of retrospect and
the profundity of introspect, we listen to
the clamor Of incessant strife which damns
and extols in the same breath the leaders
and the followers who are yet to lead'
the philosophers, the artists and the sclen-
fists. Menken is hung on the ethnic string
that binds him to an overthrown nation'
Nietzsche is exhumed that his dust may
he scattered beneath the feet of the multi
tude O. Henry is pierced with the darts
of perception that would seek out and
destroy his fitting popularity, Wilde is
drowned in a sea of salacious malice, Joyce
is undermined by his own perspicacity,
the Young Intelectuals are suffocated by
their heated invectives which in turn will
rebound and envelope their children. And
to what avail? That we, who are now
striving after an unattainable goal, may
transmit to posterity the benefits OF our
labors that they, in their turn, may ex-
pand and pass on their works into the
future. The perverted criticism, the
egoism, the lack of knowledge which con-
dennis. on the one hand, all susceptibility
to change through a clearer insight into
the follies of the age or through newer
ideaism which concentrates effort from a
different angle, and, on the other hand,
all stability in form and function as hav-
ing no place in the age which, in its youth,
gave it birth, is, while yet a part of the
process, one of the most powerful forces
working against the possibilities of good
in an ineradicable, necessary rhythm of
change.
From such a general conception of the
history of ideas and their results it is
peculiar folly that both the critics and the
public should lose so much of their knowl-
edge in the effort to define themselves and
the times in which they live. The Euro
pean energy expended for the past thirty
or forty years in the world of art and
literature, the energy which went to re-
place romanticism with realism, natural
ism, expressionsm, and impressionism, has
brought to America only the surface of its
ideas which are now being tried in the
inexperienced emotions of the people. And
where the traditions of the older schools
conflict with the life of the present, or
when the emotions which found satisfac
tion in the functions of the past are no
longer satisfied by the changed functions
OF the present, the whole process is blamed