Greenfield High School - Bulletin Yearbook (Greenfield, MO)

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Critics tell us that We must attend to three things if we would see the harmonious whole that constitutes well-ordered discoures: form, content and spirit. I shall pass by the question of literary form because it is the most discussed and least understood of all elements of discourse when applied to the novel. It is not a theory by which literature. may be pro- duced, but is itself to be derived from literature already made. The novel, itis agreed, has not yet reached the zenith of perfection. Until it has done so or at least until it is old en- ough that we may feel that it has done so, the critical study of its form cannot be fruitful, except, of course, as to those general principles which may be applied to all literature. 'I have already, in a way, covered the ground of Content of the novel, which, to me, means little more or less than the spiritual truth it contains. In order, however, that this truth may be appeciated it is necessary that we observe the spirit of the writer. We need to see the man behind the work if We would grasp the significance of his utterance. His views of life are of more importance than his principles of art. We should know his charac- ter if we would read him sympathetically--the only way we can read with appreciation. We should know whether the author be joyous or sad, serious or satirical, man or mongrel, wo- man or vampire. Moreover we must know the mood of thc man and his prcductg whether of pensive meditation as of Gray in his Elegy, or of that sweet and not necessarily-fatal-sicle ness induced by Shakspeare in As You Like It, or of righteous indignation that blazes as of Carlyle, or of that high seriousness that characterizes everything that John Ruskin wrote. A knowledge of the age in which he lived, of the influences that have modiiied his personality and of the personality itself is a requsite. The death of lrving's sweetheart, the doubt and dyspepsia of Carlisle, the misanthropy and despair of Byron, are all to be esti- mated more than as mere facts in the study of the men. ' Excellence in literature demands an apprenticeship to diiiiculty. We must know the difiiculties that we may measure the men and their work. We .need less reading in quantity and more attention to quality, both of matter and method. We need to look for- the permanent, and to cast aside the stud of the hour. But, after all, the chief thing we have to do with books is rightly to interpret them, not that we may teach them directly, or that we may preach from, but rather that we may carry out that higher interpretation hinted at by Dr. Holland when he had Katrina say: lf from out my book I gather that which comforts and inspires a nobler, sweeter, beauty in my life, and give my life to those who cannot win from the dim text such boon, then have I borne a blessing from the book and been its best interpreter. - -

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i i s 3 M i i f f l t V 5 P r r l i Q l i E I 2 i I l twisted and law perverted as if by the hand of a frenzied financier. It has its weaknesses and its committed wrongs, but it har unuttered truth. The very luxury and ease of modern life deters mastery. Brander Mathews intimates that the cry of modern life is for clothes and the novel.- c If this-be true, then it is certain that the modern novel truly echoes the cry. The worst adverse criticism I have to offer against the novel is that the iconoclastic philosophy of the novelist has colored the thought of the age. In the breaking of literary idols he has formed the habit of destruction until he has become responsible for much of the spirit of what we call liberolism, butpwhat is in reality a form of slavery to principles which refuse to be defined, and ideas of infinite relations upon which we can not with confidence re- ly. Stillthis can hardly be held against either the work or its creator. The ideals of the age, it would seem, demand it. And it will be so until God's terrible and fiery nnger shriv- els the falsehood from the souls of men. We must take the novel as it is-for better or for worse-endeavoring to find what of truth or strength it contains and direct our minds and the minds of others to these virtues. Mr. John Morley has aptly said that the purpose of literature is to bring sunshine in- to our hearts and to drive the moonshine out of our heads. We might be more specific by saying that it exists for the purpose of embellishing our minds, sublimating our ideals and enlarging our soulsg or in better words, 'fthat we may have life and have it more abundant. It is necessary to know this, at least, that we do not live for the sake of learning, but that welearn for the sake of living. We must know also that the real thing in literature is the living truth which a great spirit has found and revealed to us. A great deal of our recent fiction, it would seem, has been written by the man of the steet who occasionally feels, seldoms thinks and never comprehends. The inability to dis- tinguish between truth andfact is an attribute of that class of writers who insist that this thing is true because it really happened. They have not learned that events lie as well as men. Many writers who pride themselves on their realism falsify because they have not yet escaped the bonds from which the bright light of truth alone, focused with burning intensity, can free them. Their pictures are no more true than are those of the potographer who first poses his victum, then snaps the camera, and puts on the touches of color afterwards. The legitimate work of the novelist is to reflect life. To do this he must first be able to see life and to see it in its many aspects. Hugo, the master, saw, no doubt, what Dumas, Fils, saw, but he saw more. He gave us Cosette, a character with some of the attributes of the hectic Camile, but Cosette had a heart full of mother's love, he .painted Gavroche, the gamin, so freely and naturally that not the least element of the unharmonious disturbed us when he smilingly gave up his life to the commune. N o man can read Les Miserables care- fully and comprehensively and ever be quite so small as he was before. N 0 man can read Camille in any way under the sun and ever be quite so large as he was before. There is a real sublimation of ideals and a true enlargement of the soul that comes from Hugo, there is a contraction of everything worth while that comes from associating with Dumas, Fiis. T And now that l must pass more particmlarly to what we should note in literature, I want to impress this truth, that in literature, as in life, only the spiritual is permanent. The material is either incidental or accidental. Charley Kingsley asserts that, By well used sentiment and well used sorrow great nations live. The novelist misses the mark if he does not reflect the sentiment of the age of which he writes. And literature will not thrive ex- cept in an age of sentiment. It is not all foolishness to associate our little Spanish-American war with the out-burst of novels of the past eight years. American hearts were aroused in the days of that conflict. Gallant Joe Wheeler, standing in the rotunda of the nation's cap- ital, uttered words that stirred the feelings of the nation when he said in reply to a request of a friend notto enter the army again, I started out in my young manhood to. follow the Vocation of fighting my country's battles. It seemed best, later, to turn against the nation and fight for my own people and state. But now' that the mists have rolled away, nothing Could crown the close of my life with so much radiance as to fall while lighting for the old Stars and Stripes. Enough patriotism was contained in that short speech to furnish senti- ment for the greatest novel ever written. 3753.-,,.T - ,, 5 1 :z..:.:s,n ,r::.,.:z--sez .iiifif-151i-iifrveafrfff

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