MODERN LETTER WAITERS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1541, 10 September 1912, Page 6

MODERN LETTER WAITERS.

The publication by Macmillan and Co. of a new selection of the Letters of William Cowper, made by Mn. J. G. Fdazer, will doubtless suggest' to many readers comparisons between the. past and the present in so fains concerns the practice of letter.writing. Lotter-writing, such as our forefathers knew, say certain critics, has ceased. The present iigc nf electricity and aeroplanes, of hurry and excitement, leaves no margin of leis-ure-for tin; cultivation of'this, one of Hie most 'admirable of arts. To fall into misconceptions: concerning the higher typos of letters and Micir authors Ko.ems at the present time to be einjjularly ca&y of accomulißh-

ment. The letters which promise to be immortal, are, relatively, few in number. Cicero was the father of letter-writing and since those far-off days the art has undergone many vicissitudes. Gowper, Byron, Swift, Macaulay, aud Gibbon will always occupy a foremost place as producers of this enthralling class of literature. Sir Walter Scott wrote excellently to his friends, as did Burns, probably the most remarkably gifted of all Scotsmen. W,alpole's letters, with those of Chester--I'ield, Pope, and many written by Sydney Smith, are now ; usually placed somewhat apart, as representing but a particular section of literature. They cannot be considered as frank and spontaneous coinmunings with similar minds, seeing that they were obviously written with the public in view—the public and the publisher. Walpole cared nothing for Sir Horace Mann, and ,Lord Chesterfield's personal devotion to his son was by 119 means conspicuous. Pope was tricky and artificial to a degree, buff at the end of one letter appears the ingenuous admonition: "When this letter is printed for tho wit of it, pray take care that what is underlined be printed in a different character." The subject seems debatable: whether letters prepared with a view to publication may, or may not, be superior to those written for the individual. Whilo the former may be cast in better form and bo more ambitious than the latter, the real letter, the one' intended for the friend, or ilie intimate circle, must surely remain the more welcome and the more highly esteemed. '

The fear that letter-writing is becoming, or has already become, a lost art cannot well be justified at the present time. Distinguished men, living or recently deceased, have added nobly and generously to this particular branch of English Indeed, no, real break is apparent in the succession of letterwriters since the days of Gibbon, Scott, and Macaulay. Material, form, tone may vary, but the letters have been written and arc' in existence. Their permanence has yet to be decided. Many individual lights which shone in the brilliant galaxy to which reference has been made, have long since faded "like wisps of morning cloud into the infinite azure of the past," and time will doubtless dim, or altogether extinguish, not a few of Hie luminaries which now occupy the literary firmament. _ Not all modern letter-writers of eminence need be mentioned tfa demonstrate the continuity of the race and the term modern may be considered as rightly applicable to the last fifty years or more. But John Stuart Blackie's letters, published three years ago, streteh back to 1829, and range over the greater part of the Victorian era. Blackie first saw tho light in 1809, a date memorable by reason of the number of intellectual giants born that year. They, it will be remembered, included Gladstone, Tennyson, Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many more. Blackie was writing letters, piquant and well worthy 01 preservation, while _ Coleridge and De Quincy were still living, and he continued writing them for years after the fame had been established of moderns like R. L. Stevenson and J. M. Barrie. Literary men, politicians, ecclesiastics, Lowland snephords. and, let it be whispered, Highland ' lassies, all figure in Blackie's correspondence. Carlyle, lie describes in 1845, as "a notable monster, to be respected for the grand thoughts he has elaborated and for tho words of wisdom he has flung abroad." Letters of a different stamp from Blackie's are those of John Stuart. Mill, published by Longman two years ago. The collection contains many valuable comments addressed to such men as Oarlyle, Steeling, and Morley, and with others, should serve to dispel the illusion that brilliant letter-writing was peculiar to an ago that is long past,

Gladstone, Lord Morley's partial disavowal notwithstanding, seems destined to rank high in the future as a letter-writer on topics purely literary. Lokd Morley seems to have been strangely sparing in the selection of Gladstone's letters, or rather in his excerpts from them, published in his great Life. The theological and ecclesiastical correspondence of this remarkable and many-sided man, which MouLEylleffc severely alone, has been edited by Mr. Lathbury, and no doubt, in time, his complete letters on literary and kindred themes will be made available to the public. With Gladstone, says his biographer, "the pen was no instrument of diversion. His correspondence has an object, and a letter with an object is not of a piece with the effusions of Madame de Seviqne, Cowper, Scott, Fitzgerald, and other men and women whoso letters of genial satire and casual play and hints of depth below the surface, people will read as long as they read anything." Imposing as Gladstone's place was "in many high national transactions" ho wrote lengthily and interestingly on numerous subjects, other than political and ecclesiastical, to correspondents such as, for example, the Duke of Argyll, the Duchess of Sutherland, and Lord Acton. Profound as was his erudition and wide the sweep of his intellect, he not unseldom appealed to-Lord Acton for counsel and for assistance in the elucidation of intricate and recondite questions. Acton was named "the most learned man in Europe." He was for a number of years in close communication with Gladstone and with Mary Gladstone, afterwards Mrs. Drew. While his letters to the statesman are invariably ' weighty, those addressed to the daughter—they were recently published—are charged with witty; and pregnant sayings, keen criticisms, and shrewd estimates of men. Then there falls to bo noticed Sir Colvin's latest and most complete'edition of Stevenson's letters. Stevenson was the most industrious of correspondents and allowed himself much freedom in all t]iat ho wrote. His fascinating Yαilium Letters promises to be more enduring than some, of his novels. Lovers of bright literary talks on paper, and of the personal revealings of famous men and women need not despair. The art of letter- writing is not yet forgotten.