MANUFACTURE OF FAME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 162, 10 July 1874, Page 2

MANUFACTURE OF FAME.

(From the London Globe.) It is one of the foiblas of the present age to be always in a hurry. Doctors assure their patients that modern life is moving at a ruinous pace, and that modern men overburden themselves with thought and labor; and the world, which is rather complimented at being pitied for over work, begins to think the assertion true. There is certainly one point in which we are quicker than our ancestors. They for the most part allowed their fame to grow with time. Even Shakespeare was in bis life no more than one individual of a goodly company of wits, and Milton was poorly paid for his greatest work. But writers are much wiser now. They have fouud out a way by which they can anticipate the applause of posterity by manufacturing a little glory for themselves. The notion of allowing a book, or a play, or a picture to stand before the world on its own merits has long ago been exploded. It belonged, with any other beliefs now lost, to a period of childish and foolish modesty, when great men were content with greatness, and did not need the noisy demonstrations of the crowd. Experience has shown that the dignity of genius demands a different attitude. It has been found out by painters and writers tbat if a man desires to be immortal he must look after the matter himself, and not leave to a careless world the duty of watching oyer a precious reputation, Our men of genius have accordingly invented a^process by which fame can be raanu flared, and the world is duly informed ojftersons authorised to that end of the light moment to express admiration and delight. We need hardly say that the manufacture proceeds independently of tbe inherent qualities of the particular work. It would be obviously inadmissible to allow an incautious public to form its own opinions, and it would be an unfair tax upon the labor of authorship to expect the writer or the painter to provide the materials for a favorable judgment. Moreover, such a method, even if it were fair to the " aristrocracy oi talent," whose feelings of course are most to be considered, would nevertheless fail in the complete security indispensible in an nge of scientific exactness and certainty. The manufacture of fame is therefore entrusted to more competent hands. If the artist is a painter come thoroughly business-like dealer takes care that the work shall be popular, and if an author, then the matter ia left to the energy and enterprise of the publisher. These men know how to manipulate the sluggish sympathies of the artistic and reading world. They perfectly understand the value of large type, and do not underrate the uses of advertisements. Their wuys nre sometimes mysterious, and then tho interest of the public is awakened by sly suggestions and small paragraphs. These intimations are followed by larger announcements. Suddenly the title of the particular book assumes gigantic proportions; it meets the eye at every railway station, and penetrates into the study upon the covers of literary reviews. The author's name is not mentioned, and this circumstance makes the mystery all the greater. Smith or Jones, or whoever he may be, is kept carefully behind a mask during the whole process, and finally, when ail is prepared, the book is launched upon the world. Of course, everybody reads it, and of course, also, for a few days no one dares to say how poor he thinks it. An enormous sale is effected before the work is discovered to be worthless, and for some time the newspapers are eagaged in receiving the contradictions of different eminent authors, to whom tha composition has been wrongly attributedT^f the case of a painter the process is a little different. At first the world hears nothing but a vague record of Herculean labor. There is a sort of suspicion that thoroughness in art is pleasait to the crowd, and accordingly the work is said to have been years in preparation. When the proper moment arrives for general praise, the picture is duly enshrined in some sacred spot apart from its fellows. Into a half darkened chamber tbe public isadmitted to breathe in whisperings its tutored devotion, and to worship in the words in which it has been commended. Thus the painter or the writer is made secure of his reputation without the disagreeable and wholly needless duty of doing well. Excellence becomes a low ideal, only sought by the helplesf who<C|niicJt command the machinery §Lywfpe&». while the more influential sfrnfte^ftlilg time are content to entrust theirfame to appointed agents. We fear we can hardly anticipate a return to the more simple devices of former days. So many are now struggling for notoriety tbat writers who have only large pretentions and a fatal faculty of saying nothing in magnificent language to recommend them, cannot afford to do without the aid of thoso tricks to which they now resort. Men of real distinction, however, ought to dissociate themselves from questionable modes of attracting notice. They may be very sure that genius and high culture will in the long run win the applause they deserve. The works of really great men give delight to each generation j those of the shallow and noisy are forgotten.