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diff --git a/3109.txt b/3109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81adf1e --- /dev/null +++ b/3109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1029 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Fashions in Literature, by Charles Dudley Warner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Fashions in Literature + +Author: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: December 5, 2004 [EBook #3109] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASHIONS IN LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +FASHIONS IN LITERATURE + +By Charles Dudley Warner + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Thirty years ago and more those who read and valued good books in this +country made the acquaintance of Mr. Warner, and since the publication of +"My Summer In a Garden" no work of his has needed any other introduction +than the presence of his name on the title-page; and now that reputation +has mellowed into memory, even the word of interpretation seems +superfluous. Mr. Warner wrote out of a clear, as well as a full mind, and +lucidity of style was part of that harmonious charm of sincerity and +urbanity which made him one of the most intelligible and companionable of +our writers. + +It is a pleasure, however, to recall him as, not long ago, we saw him +move and heard him speak in the ripeness of years which brought him the +full flavor of maturity without any loss of freshness from his humor or +serenity from his thought. He shared with Lowell, Longfellow, and Curtis +a harmony of nature and art, a unity of ideal and achievement, which make +him a welcome figure, not only for what he said, but for what he was; one +of those friends whose coming is hailed with joy because they seem always +at their best, and minister to rather than draw upon our own capital of +moral vitality. + +Mr. Warner was the most undogmatic of idealists, the most winning of +teachers. He had always some thing to say to the ethical sense, a word +for the conscience; but his approach was always through the mind, and his +enforcement of the moral lesson was by suggestion rather than by +commandment. There was nothing ascetic about him, no easy solution of the +difficulties of life by ignoring or evading them; nor, on the other hand, +was there any confusion of moral standards as the result of a confusion +of ideas touching the nature and functions of art. He saw clearly, he +felt deeply, and he thought straight; hence the rectitude of his mind, +the sanity of his spirit, the justice of his dealings with the things +which make for life and art. He used the essay as Addison used it, not +for sermonic effect, but as a form of art which permitted a man to deal +with serious things in a spirit of gayety, and with that lightness of +touch which conveys influence without employing force. He was as deeply +enamored as George William Curtis with the highest ideals of life for +America, and, like Curtis, his expression caught the grace and +distinction of those ideals. + +It is a pleasure to hear his voice once more, because its very accents +suggest the most interesting, high-minded, and captivating ideals of +living; he brings with him that air of fine breeding which is diffused by +the men who, in mind as in manners, have been, in a distinctive sense, +gentlemen; who have lived so constantly and habitually on intimate terms +with the highest things in thought and character that the tone of this +really best society has become theirs. Among men of talent there are +plebeians as well as patricians; even genius, which is never vulgar, is +sometimes unable to hide the vulgarity of the aims and ideas which it +clothes with beauty without concealing their essential nature. Mr. Warner +was a patrician; the most democratic of men, he was one of the most +fastidious in his intellectual companionships and affiliations. The +subjects about which he speaks with his oldtime directness and charm in +this volume make us aware of the serious temper of his mind, of his deep +interest in the life of his time and people, and of the easy and natural +grace with which he insisted on facing the fact and bringing it to the +test of the highest standards. In his discussion of "Fashions in +Literature" he deftly brings before us the significance of literature and +the signs which it always wears, while he seems bent upon considering +some interesting aspects of contemporary writing. + +And how admirably he has described his own work in his definition of +qualities which are common to all literature of a high order: simplicity, +knowledge of human nature, agreeable personality. It would be impossible +in briefer or more comprehensive phrase to sum up and express the secret +of his influence and of the pleasure he gives us. It is to suggest this +application of his words to himself that this preparatory comment is +written. + +When "My Summer In a Garden" appeared, it won a host of friends who did +not stop to ask whether it was a piece of excellent journalism or a bit +of real literature. It was so natural, so informal, so intimate that +readers accepted it as matter of course, as they accepted the blooming of +flowers and the flitting of birds. It was simply a report of certain +things which had happened out of doors, made by an observing neighbor, +whose talk seemed to be of a piece with the diffused fragrance and light +and life of the old-fashioned garden. This easy approach, along natural +lines of interest, by quietly putting himself on common ground with his +reader, Mr. Warner never abandoned; he was so delightful a companion that +until he ceased to walk beside them, many of his friends of the mind did +not realize how much he had enriched them by the way. This charming +simplicity, which made it possible for him to put himself on intimate +terms with his readers, was the result of his sincerity, his clearness of +thought, and his ripe culture: that knowledge of the best which rids a +man forever of faith in devices, dexterities, obscurities, and all other +substitutes for the lucid realities of thinking and of character. + +To his love of reality and his sincere interest in men, Mr. Warner added +natural shrewdness and long observation of the psychology of men and +women under the stress and strain of experience. His knowledge of human +nature did not lessen his geniality, but it kept the edge of his mind +keen, and gave his work the variety not only of humor but of satire. He +cared deeply for people, but they did not impose on him; he loved his +country with a passion which was the more genuine because it was exacting +and, at times, sharply critical. There runs through all his work, as a +critic of manners and men, as well as of art, a wisdom of life born of +wide and keen observation; put not into the form of aphorisms, but of +shrewd comment, of keen criticism, of nice discrimination between the +manifold shadings of insincerity, of insight into the action and reaction +of conditions, surroundings, social and ethical aims on men and women. +The stories written in his later years are full of the evidences of a +knowledge of human nature which was singularly trustworthy and +penetrating. + +When all has been said, however, it remains true of him, as of so many of +the writers whom we read and love and love as we read, that the secret of +his charm lay in an agreeable personality. At the end of the analysis, if +the work is worth while, there is always a man, and the man is the +explanation of the work. This is pre-eminently true of those writers +whose charm lies less in distinctively intellectual qualities than in +temperament, atmosphere, humor-writers of the quality of Steele, +Goldsmith, Lamb, Irving. It is not only, therefore, a pleasure to recall +Mr. Warner; it is a necessity if one would discover the secret of his +charm, the source of his authority. + +He was a New Englander by birth and by long residence, but he was also a +man of the world in the true sense of the phrase; one whose ethical +judgment had been broadened without being lowered; who had learned that +truth, though often strenuously enforced, is never so convincing as when +stated in terms of beauty; and to whom it had been revealed that to live +naturally, sanely, and productively one must live humanly, with due +regard to the earthly as well as to heavenly, with ease as well as +earnestness of spirit, through play no less than through work, in the +large resources of art, society, and humor, as well as with the ancient +and well-tested rectitudes of the fathers. + +The harmonious play of his whole nature, the breadth of his interests and +the sanity of his spirit made Mr. Warner a delightful companion, and kept +to the very end the freshness of his mind and the spontaneity of his +humor; life never lost its savor for him, nor did his style part with its +diffused but thoroughly individual humor. This latest collection of his +papers, dealing with a wide range of subjects from the "Education of the +Negro" to "Literature and the Stage," with characteristic comments on +"Truthfulness" and "The Pursuit of Happiness," shows him at the end of +his long and tireless career as a writer still deeply interested in +contemporary events, responsive to the appeal of the questions of the +hour, and sensitive to all things which affected the dignity and +authority of literature. In his interests, his bearing, his relations to +the public life of the country, no less than in his work, he held fast to +the best traditions of literature, and he has taken his place among the +representative American men of Letters. + +HAMILTON W. MABIE. + + + + + + +FASHIONS IN LITERATURE + +If you examine a collection of prints of costumes of different +generations, you are commonly amused by the ludicrous appearance of most +of them, especially of those that are not familiar to you in your own +decade. They are not only inappropriate and inconvenient to your eye, but +they offend your taste. You cannot believe that they were ever thought +beautiful and becoming. If your memory does not fail you, however, and +you retain a little honesty of mind, you can recall the fact that a +costume which seems to you ridiculous today had your warm approval ten +years ago. You wonder, indeed, how you could ever have tolerated a +costume which has not one graceful line, and has no more relation to the +human figure than Mambrino's helmet had to a crown of glory. You cannot +imagine how you ever approved the vast balloon skirt that gave your +sweetheart the appearance of the great bell of Moscow, or that you +yourself could have been complacent in a coat the tails of which reached +your heels, and the buttons of which, a rudimentary survival, were +between your shoulder-blades--you who are now devoted to a female figure +that resembles an old-fashioned churn surmounted by an isosceles +triangle. + +These vagaries of taste, which disfigure or destroy correct proportions +or hide deformities, are nowhere more evident than in the illustrations +of works of fiction. The artist who collaborates with the contemporary +novelist has a hard fate. If he is faithful to the fashions of the day, +he earns the repute of artistic depravity in the eyes of the next +generation. The novel may become a classic, because it represents human +nature, or even the whimsicalities of a period; but the illustrations of +the artist only provoke a smile, because he has represented merely the +unessential and the fleeting. The interest in his work is archaeological, +not artistic. The genius of the great portrait-painter may to some extent +overcome the disadvantages of contemporary costume, but if the costume of +his period is hideous and lacks the essential lines of beauty, his work +is liable to need the apology of quaintness. The Greek artist and the +Mediaeval painter, when the costumes were really picturesque and made us +forget the lack of simplicity in a noble sumptuousness, had never this +posthumous difficulty to contend with. + +In the examination of costumes of different races and different ages, we +are also struck by the fact that with primitive or isolated peoples +costumes vary little from age to age, and fashion and the fashions are +unrecognized, and a habit of dress which is dictated by climate, or has +been proved to be comfortable, is adhered to from one generation to +another; while nations that we call highly civilized, meaning commonly +not only Occidental peoples, but peoples called progressive, are subject +to the most frequent and violent changes of fashions, not in generations +only, but in decades and years of a generation, as if the mass had no +mind or taste of its own, but submitted to the irresponsible ukase of +tailors and modistes, who are in alliance with enterprising manufacturers +of novelties. In this higher civilization a costume which is artistic and +becoming has no more chance of permanence than one which is ugly and +inconvenient. It might be inferred that this higher civilization produces +no better taste and discrimination, no more independent judgment, in +dress than it does in literature. The vagaries in dress of the Western +nations for a thousand years past, to go back no further, are certainly +highly amusing, and would be humiliating to people who regarded taste and +art as essentials of civilization. But when we speak of civilization, we +cannot but notice that some of the great civilizations; the longest +permanent and most notable for highest achievement in learning, science, +art, or in the graces or comforts of life, the Egyptian, the Saracenic, +the Chinese, were subject to no such vagaries in costume, but adhered to +that which taste, climate, experience had determined to be the most +useful and appropriate. And it is a singular comment upon our modern +conceit that we make our own vagaries and changeableness, and not any +fixed principles of art or of utility, the criterion of judgment, on +other races and other times. + +The more important result of the study of past fashions, in engravings +and paintings, remains to be spoken of. It is that in all the +illustrations, from the simplicity of Athens, through the artificiality +of Louis XIV and the monstrosities of Elizabeth, down to the undescribed +modistic inventions of the first McKinley, there is discoverable a +radical and primitive law of beauty. We acknowledge it among the Greeks, +we encounter it in one age and another. I mean a style of dress that is +artistic as well as picturesque, that satisfies our love of beauty, that +accords with the grace of the perfect human figure, and that gives as +perfect satisfaction to the cultivated taste as a drawing by Raphael. +While all the other illustrations of the human ingenuity in making the +human race appear fantastic or ridiculous amuse us or offend our taste, +--except the tailor fashion-plates of the week that is now,--these few +exceptions, classic or modern, give us permanent delight, and are +recognized as following the eternal law of beauty and utility. And we +know, notwithstanding the temporary triumph of bad taste and the public +lack of any taste, that there is a standard, artistic and imperishable. + +The student of manners might find an interesting field in noting how, in +our Occidental civilizations, fluctuations of opinions, of morals, and of +literary style have been accompanied by more or less significant +exhibitions of costumes. He will note in the Precieux of France and the +Euphuist of England a corresponding effeminacy in dress; in the frank +paganism of the French Revolution the affectation of Greek and Roman +apparel, passing into the Directoire style in the Citizen and the +Citizeness; in the Calvinistic cut of the Puritan of Geneva and of New +England the grim severity of their theology and morals. These examples +are interesting as showing an inclination to express an inner condition +by the outward apparel, as the Quakers indicate an inward peace by an +external drabness, and the American Indian a bellicose disposition by red +and yellow paint; just as we express by red stripes our desire to kill +men with artillery, or by yellow stripes to kill them with cavalry. It is +not possible to say whether these external displays are relics of +barbarism or are enduring necessities of human nature. + +The fickleness of men in costume in a manner burlesques their shifty and +uncertain taste in literature. A book or a certain fashion in letters +will have a run like a garment, and, like that, will pass away before it +waxes old. It seems incredible, as we look back over the literary history +of the past three centuries only, what prevailing styles and moods of +expression, affectations, and prettinesses, each in turn, have pleased +reasonably cultivated people. What tedious and vapid things they read and +liked to read! Think of the French, who had once had a Villon, +intoxicating themselves with somnolent draughts of Richardson. But, then, +the French could match the paste euphuisms of Lyly with the novels of +Scudery. Every modern literature has been subject to these epidemics and +diseases. It is needless to dwell upon them in detail. Since the great +diffusion of printing, these literary crazes have been more frequent and +of shorter duration. We need go back no further than a generation to find +abundant examples of eccentricities of style and expression, of crazes +over some author or some book, as unaccountable on principles of art as +many of the fashions in social life.--The more violent the attack, the +sooner it is over. Readers of middle age can recall the furor over +Tupper, the extravagant expectations as to the brilliant essayist +Gilfillan, the soon-extinguished hopes of the poet Alexander Smith. For +the moment the world waited in the belief of the rising of new stars, and +as suddenly realized that it had been deceived. Sometimes we like +ruggedness, and again we like things made easy. Within a few years a +distinguished Scotch clergyman made a fortune by diluting a paragraph +written by Saint Paul. It is in our memory how at one time all the boys +tried to write like Macaulay, and then like Carlyle, and then like +Ruskin, and we have lived to see the day when all the girls would like to +write like Heine. + +In less than twenty years we have seen wonderful changes in public taste +and in the efforts of writers to meet it or to create it. We saw the +everlastingly revived conflict between realism and romanticism. We saw +the realist run into the naturalist, the naturalist into the animalist, +the psychologist into the sexualist, and the sudden reaction to romance, +in the form of what is called the historic novel, the receipt for which +can be prescribed by any competent pharmacist. The one essential in the +ingredients is that the hero shall be mainly got out of one hole by +dropping him into a deeper one, until--the proper serial length being +attained--he is miraculously dropped out into daylight, and stands to +receive the plaudits of a tenderhearted world, that is fond of nothing so +much as of fighting. + +The extraordinary vogue of certain recent stories is not so much to be +wondered at when we consider the millions that have been added to the +readers of English during the past twenty-five years. The wonder is that +a new book does not sell more largely, or it would be a wonder if the +ability to buy kept pace with the ability to read, and if discrimination +had accompanied the appetite for reading. The critics term these +successes of some recent fictions "crazes," but they are really sustained +by some desirable qualities--they are cleverly written, and they are for +the moment undoubtedly entertaining. Some of them as undoubtedly appeal +to innate vulgarity or to cultivated depravity. I will call no names, +because that would be to indict the public taste. This recent phenomenon +of sales of stories by the hundred thousand is not, however, wholly due +to quality. Another element has come in since the publishers have +awakened to the fact that literature can be treated like merchandise. To +use their own phrase, they "handle" books as they would "handle" patent +medicines, that is, the popular patent medicines that are desired because +of the amount of alcohol they contain; indeed, they are sold along with +dry-goods and fancy notions. I am not objecting to this great and wide +distribution any more than I am to the haste of fruit-dealers to market +their products before they decay. The wary critic will be very careful +about dogmatizing over the nature and distribution of literary products. +It is no certain sign that a book is good because it is popular, nor is +it any more certain that it is good because it has a very limited sale. +Yet we cannot help seeing that many of the books that are the subject of +crazes utterly disappear in a very short time, while many others, +approved by only a judicious few, continue in the market and slowly +become standards, considered as good stock by the booksellers and +continually in a limited demand. + +The English essayists have spent a good deal of time lately in discussing +the question whether it is possible to tell a good contemporary book from +a bad one. Their hesitation is justified by a study of English criticism +of new books in the quarterly, monthly, and weekly periodicals from the +latter part of the eighteenth century to the last quarter of the +nineteenth; or, to name a definite period, from the verse of the Lake +poets, from Shelley and Byron, down to Tennyson, there is scarcely a poet +who has attained world-wide assent to his position in the first or second +rank who was not at the hands of the reviewers the subject of mockery and +bitter detraction. To be original in any degree was to be damned. And +there is scarcely one who was at first ranked as a great light during +this period who is now known out of the biographical dictionary. Nothing +in modern literature is more amazing than the bulk of English criticism +in the last three-quarters of a century, so far as it concerned +individual writers, both in poetry and prose. The literary rancor shown +rose to the dignity almost of theological vituperation. + +Is there any way to tell a good book from a bad one? Yes. As certainly as +you can tell a good picture from a bad one, or a good egg from a bad one. +Because there are hosts who do not discriminate as to the eggs or the +butter they eat, it does not follow that a normal taste should not know +the difference. + +Because there is a highly artistic nation that welcomes the flavor of +garlic in everything, and another which claims to be the most civilized +in the world that cannot tell coffee from chicory, or because the ancient +Chinese love rancid sesame oil, or the Esquimaux like spoiled blubber and +tainted fish, it does not follow that there is not in the world a +wholesome taste for things natural and pure. + +It is clear that the critic of contemporary literature is quite as likely +to be wrong as right. He is, for one thing, inevitably affected by the +prevailing fashion of his little day. And, worse still, he is apt to make +his own tastes and prejudices the standard of his judgment. His view is +commonly provincial instead of cosmopolitan. In the English period just +referred to it is easy to see that most of the critical opinion was +determined by political or theological animosity and prejudice. The rule +was for a Tory to hit a Whig or a Whig to hit a Tory, under whatever +literary guise he appeared. If the new writer was not orthodox in the +view of his political or theological critic, he was not to be tolerated +as poet or historian, Dr. Johnson had said everything he could say +against an author when he declared that he was a vile Whig. Macaulay, a +Whig, always consulted his prejudices for his judgment, equally when he +was reviewing Croker's Boswell or the impeachment of Warren Hastings. He +hated Croker,--a hateful man, to be sure,--and when the latter published +his edition of Boswell, Macaulay saw his opportunity, and exclaimed +before he had looked at the book, as you will remember, "Now I will dust +his jacket." The standard of criticism does not lie with the individual +in literature any more than it does in different periods as to fashions +and manners. The world is pretty well agreed, and always has been, as to +the qualities that make a gentleman. And yet there was a time when the +vilest and perhaps the most contemptible man who ever occupied the +English throne,--and that is saying a great deal,--George IV, was +universally called the "First Gentleman of Europe." The reproach might be +somewhat lightened by the fact that George was a foreigner, but for the +wider fact that no person of English stock has been on the throne since +Saxon Harold, the chosen and imposed rulers of England having been +French, Welsh, Scotch, and Dutch, many of them being guiltless of the +English language, and many of them also of the English middle-class +morality. The impartial old Wraxall, the memorialist of the times of +George III, having described a noble as a gambler, a drunkard, a +smuggler, an appropriator of public money, who always cheated his +tradesmen, who was one and sometimes all of them together, and a +profligate generally, commonly adds, "But he was a perfect gentleman." +And yet there has always been a standard that excludes George IV from the +rank of gentleman, as it excludes Tupper from the rank of poet. + +The standard of literary judgment, then, is not in the individual,--that +is, in the taste and prejudice of the individual,--any more than it is in +the immediate contemporary opinion, which is always in flux and reflux +from one extreme to another; but it is in certain immutable principles +and qualities which have been slowly evolved during the long historic +periods of literary criticism. But how shall we ascertain what these +principles are, so as to apply them to new circumstances and new +creations, holding on to the essentials and disregarding contemporary +tastes; prejudices, and appearances? We all admit that certain pieces of +literature have become classic; by general consent there is no dispute +about them. How they have become so we cannot exactly explain. Some say +by a mysterious settling of universal opinion, the operation of which +cannot be exactly defined. Others say that the highly developed critical +judgment of a few persons, from time to time, has established forever +what we agree to call masterpieces. But this discussion is immaterial, +since these supreme examples of literary excellence exist in all kinds of +composition,--poetry, fable, romance, ethical teaching, prophecy, +interpretation, history, humor, satire, devotional flight into the +spiritual and supernatural, everything in which the human mind has +exercised itself,--from the days of the Egyptian moralist and the Old +Testament annalist and poet down to our scientific age. These +masterpieces exist from many periods and in many languages, and they all +have qualities in common which have insured their persistence. To +discover what these qualities are that have insured permanence and +promise indefinite continuance is to have a means of judging with an +approach to scientific accuracy our contemporary literature. There is no +thing of beauty that does not conform to a law of order and beauty--poem, +story, costume, picture, statue, all fall into an ascertainable law of +art. Nothing of man's making is perfect, but any creation approximates +perfection in the measure that it conforms to inevitable law. + +To ascertain this law, and apply it, in art or in literature, to the +changing conditions of our progressive life, is the business of the +artist. It is the business of the critic to mark how the performance +conforms to or departs from the law evolved and transmitted in the +long-experience of the race. True criticism, then, is not a matter of +caprice or of individual liking or disliking, nor of conformity to a +prevailing and generally temporary popular judgment. Individual judgment +may be very interesting and have its value, depending upon the capacity +of the judge. It was my good fortune once to fall in with a person who +had been moved, by I know not what inspiration, to project himself out of +his safe local conditions into France, Greece, Italy, Cairo, and +Jerusalem. He assured me that he had seen nothing anywhere in the wide +world of nature and art to compare with the beauty of Nebraska. + +What are the qualities common to all the masterpieces of literature, or, +let us say, to those that have endured in spite of imperfections and +local provincialisms? + +First of all I should name simplicity, which includes lucidity of +expression, the clear thought in fitting, luminous words. And this is +true when the thought is profound and the subject is as complex as life +itself. This quality is strikingly exhibited for us in Jowett's +translation of Plato--which is as modern in feeling and phrase as +anything done in Boston--in the naif and direct Herodotus, and, above +all, in the King James vernacular translation of the Bible, which is the +great text-book of all modern literature. + +The second quality is knowledge of human nature. We can put up with the +improbable in invention, because the improbable is always happening in +life, but we cannot tolerate the so-called psychological juggling with +the human mind, the perversion of the laws of the mind, the forcing of +character to fit the eccentricities of plot. Whatever excursions the +writer makes in fancy, we require fundamental consistency with human +nature. And this is the reason why psychological studies of the abnormal, +or biographies of criminal lunatics, are only interesting to pathologists +and never become classics in literature. + +A third quality common to all masterpieces is what we call charm, a +matter more or less of style, and which may be defined as the agreeable +personality of the writer. This is indispensable. It is this personality +which gives the final value to every work of art as well as of +literature. It is not enough to copy nature or to copy, even accurately, +the incidents of life. Only by digestion and transmutation through +personality does any work attain the dignity of art. The great works of +architecture, even, which are somewhat determined by mathematical rule, +owe their charm to the personal genius of their creators. For this reason +our imitations of Greek architecture are commonly failures. To speak +technically, the masterpiece of literature is characterized by the same +knowledge of proportion and perspective as the masterpiece in art. + +If there is a standard of literary excellence, as there is a law of +beauty--and it seems to me that to doubt this in the intellectual world +is to doubt the prevalence of order that exists in the natural--it is +certainly possible to ascertain whether a new production conforms, and +how far it conforms, to the universally accepted canons of art. To work +by this rule in literary criticism is to substitute something definite +for the individual tastes, moods, and local bias of the critic. It is +true that the vast body of that which we read is ephemeral, and justifies +its existence by its obvious use for information, recreation, and +entertainment. But to permit the impression to prevail that an +unenlightened popular preference for a book, however many may hold it, is +to be taken as a measure of its excellence, is like claiming that a +debased Austrian coin, because it circulates, is as good as a gold stater +of Alexander. The case is infinitely worse than this; for a slovenly +literature, unrebuked and uncorrected, begets slovenly thought and +debases our entire intellectual life. + +It should be remembered, however, that the creative faculty in man has +not ceased, nor has puny man drawn all there is to be drawn out of the +eternal wisdom. We are probably only in the beginning of our evolution, +and something new may always be expected, that is, new and fresh +applications of universal law. The critic of literature needs to be in an +expectant and receptive frame of mind. Many critics approach a book with +hostile intent, and seem to fancy that their business is to look for what +is bad in it, and not for what is good. It seems to me that the first +duty of the critic is to try to understand the author, to give him a fair +chance by coming to his perusal with an open mind. Whatever book you +read, or sermon or lecture you hear, give yourself for the time +absolutely to its influence. This is just to the author, fair to the +public, and, above all, valuable to the intellectual sanity of the critic +himself. It is a very bad thing for the memory and the judgment to get +into a habit of reading carelessly or listening with distracted +attention. I know of nothing so harmful to the strength of the mind as +this habit. There is a valuable mental training in closely following a +discourse that is valueless in itself. After the reader has unreservedly +surrendered himself to the influence of the book, and let his mind +settle, as we say, and resume its own judgment, he is in a position to +look at it objectively and to compare it with other facts of life and of +literature dispassionately. He can then compare it as to form, substance, +tone, with the enduring literature that has come down to us from all the +ages. It is a phenomenon known to all of us that we may for the moment be +carried away by a book which upon cool reflection we find is false in +ethics and weak in construction. We find this because we have standards +outside ourselves. + +I am not concerned to define here what is meant by literature. A great +mass of it has been accumulated in the progress of mankind, and, +fortunately for different wants and temperaments, it is as varied as the +various minds that produced it. The main thing to be considered is that +this great stream of thought is the highest achievement and the most +valuable possession of mankind. It is not only that literature is the +source of inspiration to youth and the solace of age, but it is what a +national language is to a nation, the highest expression of its being. +Whatever we acquire of science, of art, in discovery, in the application +of natural laws in industries, is an enlargement of our horizon, and a +contribution to the highest needs of man, his intellectual life. The +controversy between the claims of the practical life and the intellectual +is as idle as the so-called conflict between science and religion. And +the highest and final expression of this life of man, his thought, his +emotion, his feeling, his aspiration, whatever you choose to call it, is +in the enduring literature he creates. He certainly misses half his +opportunity on this planet who considers only the physical or what is +called the practical. He is a man only half developed. I can conceive no +more dreary existence than that of a man who is past the period of +business activity, and who cannot, for his entertainment, his happiness, +draw upon the great reservoir of literature. For what did I come into +this world if I am to be like a stake planted in a fence, and not like a +tree visited by all the winds of heaven and the birds of the air? + +Those who concern themselves with the printed matter in books and +periodicals are often in despair over the volume of it, and their actual +inability to keep up with current literature. They need not worry. If all +that appears in books, under the pressure of publishers and the ambition +of experimenters in writing, were uniformly excellent, no reader would be +under any more obligation to read it than he is to see every individual +flower and blossoming shrub. Specimens of the varieties would suffice. +But a vast proportion of it is the product of immature minds, and of a +yearning for experience rather than a knowledge of life. There is no more +obligation on the part of the person who would be well informed and +cultivated to read all this than there is to read all the colored +incidents, personal gossip, accidents, and crimes repeated daily, with +sameness of effect, in the newspapers, some of the most widely circulated +of which are a composite of the police gazette and the comic almanac. A +great deal of the reading done is mere contagion, one form or another of +communicated grippe, and it is consoling and even surprising to know that +if you escape the run of it for a season, you have lost nothing +appreciable. Some people, it has been often said, make it a rule never to +read a book until it is from one to five years old, By this simple device +they escape the necessity of reading most of them, but this is only a +part of their gain. Considering the fact that the world is full of books +of the highest value for cultivation, entertainment, and information, +which the utmost leisure we can spare from other pressing avocations does +not suffice to give us knowledge of, it does seem to be little less than +a moral and intellectual sin to flounder about blindly in the flood of +new publications. I am speaking, of course, of the general mass of +readers, and not of the specialists who must follow their subjects with +ceaseless inquisition. But for most of us who belong to the still +comparatively few who, really read books, the main object of life is not +to keep up with the printing-press, any more than it is the main object +of sensible people to follow all the extremes and whims of fashion in +dress. When a fashion in literature has passed, we are surprised that it +should ever have seemed worth the trouble of studying or imitating. When +the special craze has passed, we notice another thing, and that is that +the author, not being of the first rank or of the second, has generally +contributed to the world all that he has to give in one book, and our +time has been wasted on his other books; and also that in a special kind +of writing in a given period--let us say, for example, the +historico-romantic--we perceive that it all has a common character, is +constructed on the same lines of adventure and with a prevailing type of +hero and heroine, according to the pattern set by the first one or two +stories of the sort which became popular, and we see its more or less +mechanical construction, and how easily it degenerates into commercial +book-making. Now while some of this writing has an individual flavor that +makes it entertaining and profitable in this way, we may be excused from +attempting to follow it all merely because it happens to be talked about +for the moment, and generally talked about in a very undiscriminating +manner. We need not in any company be ashamed if we have not read it all, +especially if we are ashamed that, considering the time at our disposal, +we have not made the acquaintance of the great and small masterpieces of +literature. It is said that the fashion of this world passeth away, and +so does the mere fashion in literature, the fashion that does not follow +the eternal law of beauty and symmetry, and contribute to the +intellectual and spiritual part of man. Otherwise it is only a waiting in +a material existence, like the lovers, in the words of the Arabian +story-teller, "till there came to them the Destroyer of Delights and the +Sunderer of Companies, he who layeth waste the palaces and peopleth the +tombs." + +Without special anxiety, then, to keep pace with all the ephemeral in +literature, lest we should miss for the moment something that is +permanent, we can rest content in the vast accumulation of the tried and +genuine that the ages have given us. Anything that really belongs to +literature today we shall certainly find awaiting us tomorrow. + +The better part of the life of man is in and by the imagination. This is +not generally believed, because it is not generally believed that the +chief end of man is the accumulation of intellectual and spiritual +material. Hence it is that what is called a practical education is set +above the mere enlargement and enrichment of the mind; and the possession +of the material is valued, and the intellectual life is undervalued. But +it should be remembered that the best preparation for a practical and +useful life is in the high development of the powers of the mind, and +that, commonly, by a culture that is not considered practical. The +notable fact about the group of great parliamentary orators in the days +of George III is the exhibition of their intellectual resources in the +entire world of letters, the classics, and ancient and modern history. +Yet all of them owed their development to a strictly classical training +in the schools. And most of them had not only the gift of the imagination +necessary to great eloquence, but also were so mentally disciplined by +the classics that they handled the practical questions upon which they +legislated with clearness and precision. The great masters of finance +were the classically trained orators William Pitt and Charles James Fox. + +In fine, to return to our knowledge of the short life of fashions that +are for the moment striking, why should we waste precious time in chasing +meteoric appearances, when we can be warmed and invigorated in the +sunshine of the great literatures? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Fashions in Literature, by Charles Dudley Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASHIONS IN LITERATURE *** + +***** This file should be named 3109.txt or 3109.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/3109/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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