XI 



"MERE LITEKAT0EE" 



TS there any justification for the phrase " mere 

 -'- literature " which one often hears nowadays ? 

 There is no doubt a serious sneer in it, as Professor 

 "Woodrow Wilson, in a recent "Atlantic" essay, 

 avers ; but I think the sneer is not aimed so much 

 at literature in itself as at certain phases of litera- 

 ture. Lowell has been quoted as saying that " mere 

 scholarship is as useless as the collecting of old 

 postage stamps ; " yet at vital scholarship — schol- 

 arship that is wielded as a weapon, and that results 

 in power — Lowell would be the last man to sneer. 

 In all times of high literary culture and criticism, a 

 great deal is produced that may well be called mere 

 literature, — the result of assiduous training and stim- 

 ulation of the literary faculties, — just as a great 

 deal of art is produced that may be called mere art. 

 Literature that is the result of the friction upon the 

 mind of other literatures, might, with some justice, 

 be called mere literature. That which is the result 

 of the contact of the mind with reality is, or ought 

 to be, of another order. 



Or we may say " mere literature " as we say " mere 

 gentleman." !N"ow gentlemanly qualities — refine- 



