Life — October 6, 1892 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘LIFE: “DEAR, DEAR! THESE FLOWERS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE OPEN ON SUNDAY! WHAT AN EXAMPLE TO THE CHICAGO SOME ESSAYS IN A NEW MANNER. THE modern essayist is apt to be a man with culture and knowledge enough to write a (ull-grown book, but only energy enough to wnte an essay. He isa dilettante who finds about the space he wants for his ideas in a magazine article. Nobody attaches any particular authority to what he says, because he himself makes it evident that there isn't any auth in anything worth considering ; it is only a question of point-of-view, and every man of culture has a right to his own “point” and the privilege of talking from it about things in general, The one condition is that he must not be cocksure about anything; he must simply write with that elegant urbanity which Matthew Arnold made into a prose style, and qualify all his statements with “perhaps,” “if you please” and ‘to my thinking,” until even the most obstinate reader is convinced that he is a most superior per- son, if he would only let himself out. . * . UT in the “ Modern Humanists "(Social Science Series) by Jobn M. Robertson there is a sweeping, clearing breeze through alll this mist. For almost the first time in recent years the same intellectual energy and pertinacity is applied to a literary inquiry, that has been demanded of every modern investigator in the field of the physical sciences. More than that, Mr. Robertson applies to literary subjects that method of rigid comparison and induction by logical processes that has been the means of recent scientific advancement. ‘The result isa precision of phrase, a definiteness of statement and conclusion— something more than that “lucidity” which the dilettante delights to talk about—a positive arrival at convictions which relate to a system and standard of judgment. If the reader accepts these conclusions he knows why; if he rejects them he must expend enough energy to overthrow the logic supporting them—and that is good for his soul. The advantage of this method is that the author writes as one having authority—not the authority of personal opinion or culture, but the authority of an accepted scientific method. His conclusions are at least entitled to the same respect that is given those of a biologist or chemist who shows you his experiments. * * * R. ROBERTSON applies his method to Carlyle, Mill, Emerson, Amold, Ruskin, Spencer, He says in effect ‘ You are critics of life and society. Let us see what right you have to that authority ? Have you classified the phenomena of life scientifically, or have you simply observed them at hap-hazard and written your impressions ? Life is a very complex and highly organized manifestation of matter. Its laws have been determined to a certain extent by investigators who have arrived at them by the most precise, logical method. They have tried to rid themselves of the ‘ personal equation,’ and to see things in the white light of truth. If your criticisms of life are to stand, they must pass the same test.” The result is a wholesale breaking of idols ina very systematic way. ‘The reader follows the iconoclast with breathless interest, as he would follow the hero of a novel. This man is hunting down a scientific error with the ardor of a sportsman ; he tracks it with resistless logic, showing you all the foot-prints of the game—how it doubled on its tracks to throw you off the scent ; how it left its fur on a brier of hard- pointed fact, and how it evaded an obstacle by running around it, And when he finally tracks it to its lair, he tortures it with irony, he laughs at its writhing, and slays it at last with an epigram. It is rare sport, but it is often a little cruel. If the man were not so perfectly self-possessed about it you would suspect him of malignity. At his best you follow him with admiration, but hardly with sympathy. When he has destroyed your idol to his satisfaction, he gives you a eulogy on the virtues of the deceased, which is all that the most ardent disciplecould wish. Then he adds: ‘* Your idol was all this, but he was illogical. ‘Therefore he taught error, and to that extent he was a drawback to human progress, and an enemy of the race.” Droch. NEW BOOKS. A WOMANS, WEB, By C. V, Maitland. New York: G. W. Dilling am, A Biue Stocking, Dillingham. Bachelor Buttons, By Frank Chaffee. New York: George M. Allen Company. My Uncle Benjamin, By Claude Fillier. Translated by Benjamin R. Tucker. St.Paul: The Price-McGill Company. The Duchess of Berry and the Court of Louis XVII. By Imbert de Saint-Armand. ‘New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. The Foot-Path Way. By Bradford Torrey. Boston and New York: Houghton, Miffin and Company. By Mrs. Annie Edwardes. New York: G. W. OUR FRESH AIR FUND. From the Young People of Mt. Livermore House, Holderness, N $20.00 From a lover of Live anc little children. ates 238 Total......§13,283.78 Previously acknowledged $12,254. From the Flower Mision”? of Marquette, Mich.-...- Children’ Entertainment at Maple Grove Farm House, Sheffield, Mass. 2.00 7.00 A TAIL PIECE. comicbooks.com