ON THE KE-KEADING OF BOOKS 227 



The least bit of acting and pretense, and the words 

 ring false. The effort of the writer of books like 

 " Two Years before the Mast " is always entirely 

 serious and truthful ; his eye is single ; he has no 

 vanities to display before the reader. Compare this 

 book with such a record as Stevenson's "Inland 

 Voyage " or his " Travels with a Donkey." Here 

 the effort is mainly literary, and we get the stimu- 

 lus of words rather than of things ; we are one re- 

 move more from reality. 



General Grant's " Memoirs," I think, are likely 

 to last, because of their deep seriousness and good 

 faith. The effort here is not a literary one, but a 

 real one. The writer is not occupied with his man- 

 ner, but with his matter. Had Grant had any liter- 

 ary vanity or ambition, is it at all probable that his 

 narrative would cleave to us as it does ? The near 

 presence of death would probably cure any man of 

 his vanity, if he had any; but Grant never had 

 any. 



I have always felt that Tennyson's famous poem 

 " Crossing the Bar " did not ring quite true, be- 

 cause it was not conceived in a spirit serious enough 

 for the occasion. The poetic effort is too obvious ; 

 the pride of the verse is too noticeable ; it bedecks 

 itself with pretty fancies. The last solemn strain 

 of Whitman, wherein he welcomes death as the 

 right hand of God, strikes a far deeper chord, I 

 think. As in the Biblical writers, the literary effort 

 is entirely lost in the religious faith and fervor. 

 "We do not want a thing too much written ; in fact, 



