LITERARY VALUES 9 



Then those dead-level sentences that seem to re- 

 turn forever into themselves, that have no direction 

 or fall, that do not point and hurry to some definite 

 conclusion, — we soon yawn over these too. 



What rare power the late Henry George had to 

 invest his subject with interest ! What a current in 

 his book "Progress and Poverty " ! — While it seems 

 to me that in his " Social Evolution " Benjamin 

 Kidd suffers from the want of this talent ; I do not 

 get the full force of his periods at the first reading. 



Ill 



Literature abounds in attempts to define literature. 

 One of the most strenuous and thorough-going defi- 

 nitions I have seen has lately been published by one 

 of our college professors — it is a most determined 

 attempt to corral the whole subject. " Nothing be- 

 longs to real literature," says the professor, " unless 

 it consists of written words that constitute a carrying 

 statement which makes sense, arranged rhythmically, 

 euphoniously, and harmoniously, and so chosen as to 

 connote an adequate number of ideas and things, the 

 suggestion of which will call up in the reader sus- 

 tained emotions which do not produce undue ten- 

 sion, and in which the element of pleasure predomi- 

 nates, on the whole, over that of pain. Practically," 

 the writer goes on to say, " every word of this de- 

 scription should be kept in our minds, so that we 

 may consciously apply it as a test to any piece of 

 writing about the literary character of which we are 

 in doubt." 



