120 LITEEAET VALUES 



are directed to other than purely aesthetic ends. 

 They gave expression to their individual tastes and 

 predilections ; they were more or less tethered to 

 their own egos ; they may he called the personal 

 authors, as their predecessors may be called the im- 

 personal. They are not of the pure breed of men 

 of letters, but represent crosses of various kinds, as 

 the cross of the artist with the thinker, the savant, 

 the theologian, the man of science, the reformer, the 

 preacher. These personal authors belong to the 

 modern world rather than to the ancient ; to a time 

 of individualism rather than to a time of institution- 

 alism ; to an industrial and democratic age, rather 

 than to an imperial and military age. 



Modern life is undoubtedly becoming more and 

 more impersonal in the sense that it favors less and 

 less the growth and preservation of great personali- 

 ties, yet its utilitarian spirit, its tendency to speciali- 

 zation, its right of private judgment, and its religious 

 doubts and unrest, find their outcome in individ- 

 ualism in literature. The disinterested critics and 

 recorders are still among us, but power has departed 

 from them. The age is too serious, the questions 

 are too pressing. The man of genius is no longer 

 at ease in Zion. If he rises at all above the masses, 

 he must share the burden of thought and conscience 

 of his times. This burden may hinder the free artis- 

 tic play of his powers, as it probably has in most 

 of the writers I have mentioned, yet it will greatly 

 deepen the impression his words will make. The 

 saying "Art for art's sake" cannot be impeached, 



