Ethics of Literature (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Ethics of Literature

A ramble through this field and a view of some of the labor ers and their works may not be amiss in one whose life has been a contemplation of and devotion to it. A candid inquiry into their various merits may work no more ill than slightly to increase the mass, the bulk of which embarrasses more than it edifies the votary to progress, engenders thought as variegated as the features and complexions of men, and hinders rather than promotes the march of intellect. The paradoxical position that one properly may write to show that too much is already writ ten is confidently assumed. The manner in which it is main tained and its success are matters for the discernment of the reader. One ought not to bespeak charity for such a work as is here proposed. Yet such a plea might be prompted if not excused by a due appreciation of the magnitude of the under taking. Lf self-conceit blinds some writers to their own folly, it may sustain others against a humiliating consciousness of infer iority. Were my position consistent with justification by pre cedent, it might be observed that one is not far from fashion merely in the fact that his own overweening assurance is the only assurance he has that he will not meet merited mortifi cation.

The boldness of the undertaking will dwindle to diflidence when compared with the effrontery of savants, prescribing the plans and portraying the purposes of Providence. Under their auspices and with a servile sycophancy Religion is found catch ing at the hem of the garment of Science. Lts apologists (not its promoters) assume the authority to enunciate a divine (moral?) philosophy, to vouch for the veracity of divine verity, and to defend Omnipotence against Impotence, whose assaults derive their chief importance from the concern of pedantic fan atics.

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