BEFORE GENIUS 147 



account for the sake of what he has to say 1 Even 

 in the best there is something of the air and man- 

 ners of a performer on exhibition. The newspaper, 

 or magazine, or book is a sort of raised platform 

 upon which the advertiser advances before a gaping 

 and expectant crowd. Truly, how well he handles 

 his subject! He turns it over, and around, and in- 

 side out, and top-side down. He tosses it about; 

 he twirls it; he takes it apart and puts it together 

 again, and knows well beforehand where the applause 

 will come in. Any reader, in taking up the antique 

 authors, must be struck by the contrast. 



" In .35sohylus, " says Landor, " there is no trick- 

 ery, no trifling, no delay, no exposition, no garru- 

 lity, no dogmatism, no declamation, no prosing, . . . 

 but the loud, clear challenge, the firm, unstealthy 

 step, of an erect, broad-breasted soldier." 



On the whole, the old authors are better than the 

 new. The real question of literature is not simpli- 

 fied by culture or a multiplication of books, as the 

 conditions of life are always the same, and are not 

 made one whit easier by all the myriads of men and 

 women who have lived upon the globe. The stand- 

 ing want is never for more skill, but for newer, 

 fresher power, — a more plentiful supply of arterial 

 blood. The discoverer, or the historian, or the 

 man of science, may begin where his predecessor left 

 ofif, but the poet or any artist must go back for a 

 fresh start. With him it is always the first day of 

 creation, and he must begin at the stump or nowhere. 



