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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 this Project Gutenberg Etext of Fashions in Literature +by Charles Dudley Warner + |