Life and Literature

BY LAFCADIO HEARN SELECTED AND EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN ERSKINE, PH. D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LONDbN WILLIAM HEINEMANN COPYRIGHT, 191T BY MITCHELL McDONALD PRINTED IN U. S. A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION vii I ON READING IN RELATION TO LITERATURE i II ON THE RELATION OF LIFE AND CHARACTER TO LIT ERATURE 21 II ON COMPOSITION 43 V NOTE UPON THE ABUSE AND USE OF LITERARY SOCIE TIES 69 V LITFRARY GENIUS A FRAGMENT 77 I ON MODERN ENGLISH CRITICISM, AND THE CONTEM PORARY RELATIONS OF ENGIISH TO FRENCH LIT ERATURE 80 VII THE PROSE OF SMALL THINGS 108 VIII THE POETRY OF GEORGE MEREDITH 129 IX GEORGE BORROW 181 X NOTE UPON ROSSETTIS PROSE 188 XI THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES 200 XII THE VICTORIAN SPASMODICS 205 XIII THE POETRY OF LORD DE TABLEY 228 XIV NOTE ON SOME FRENCH ROMANTICS 246 XV SOME FRENCH POEMS ON INSECTS 266 XVI NOTE UPON AN UGLY SUBJECT 284 XVII TOLSTOIS THEORY OF ART 288 XVIII NOTE UPON TOLSTOIS RESURRECTION .... 300 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIX SOME POEMS ON DEATH 308 XX SOME FAIRY LITERATURE 324 XXI THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ROMANCE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 340 XXII lONICA 352 XXIII OLD GREEK FRAGMENTS 377 INTRODUCTION Thfs volume contains a third selection from the lectures which Lafcadio Hearn delivered at the University of Tokyo between 1896 and 1902. An account of these lectures and of the remarkable student notes in which they were pre served, is given in the Introductions to the first selection, Interpretations of Literature, 1915, and to the second selection, Appreciations of Poetry, 1916. It should be said again, for the information of those who may read this present volume without acquaintance with the others, that Lafcadio Hearn lectured very slowly, choosing simple words and constructions, in order to make the foreign language as easy as possible to his Japanese students and some of his students managed to take down many of his lectures word for word. From their notes the only record we have of Lafcadio Hearn the teacher the present volume, like its predecessors, is selected. It is unnecessary to speak again of the service Lafcadio Hearn rendered to the West by his interpretations of Japan, nor of the service he rendered to the East in these lectures on Western literature. The editor would call attention once more, however, to the extraordinary quality of these lectures simply as literary criticism. Had they been addressed to an American audience, they would not have suggested, as they now do, the lonely and romantic adventure of Western cul ture in the Japanese classroom but they would still have de served our attention as one of the finest illustrations cer tainly the illustration on the largest scale in English of that kind of criticism which tries to interpret rather than to pass sentence. To be sure, a sympathetic explanation, Jjx art as in life, may imply a verdict, but with Hearn the VII viii INTRODUCTION implication remained secondary to the sympathy and the understanding. His attitude is the usual one among crea- tive artists it is in grateful contrast with both the academic and the journalistic schools of criticism today, which light up their verdicts with artificial emphasis, and leave sympa thy and understanding shall we say, imagination V in sub dued shadow. The present editor, therefore, does not expect all readers to agree with him now that these volumes of Lafcadio Hearns are among the best examples of the soundestkind of criticism but he hopes for a day when such praise will seem not extreme. The pigeon-holing type of criticism, having its central roots in mediocrity, is likely to survive the assaults of common sense, but its prestige is wan ing, and it may be forced to surrender the high place it has long usurped. Certainly the appreciation of literature has not prospered under the tradition which, having fixed a label on a book, would dispose of it like a jar of jam all of one kind on the same shelf...