f in such
a time of confusion the calm tones of unexaggerated literary art should
be not so much heeded as the more strident voices. Yet when the passing
fashion of this day is succeeded by the fashion of another, that which
is most acceptable to the thought and feeling of the present may be
without an audience; and it may happen that few recent authors will be
read as Scott and the writers of the early part of this century will be
read. It may, however, be safely predicted that those writers of fiction
worthy to be called literary artists will best retain their hold who
have faithfully painted the manners of their own time.

Irving has shared the neglect of the writers of his generation. It
would be strange, even in America, if this were not so. The development
of American literature (using the term in its broadest sense) in the
past forty years is greater than could have been expected in a nation
which had its ground to clear, its wealth to win, and its new
governmental experiment to adjust; if we confine our view to the last
twenty years, the national production is vast in amount and encouraging
in quality. It suffices to say of it here, in a general way, that the
most vigorous activity has been in the departments of history, of
applied science, and the discussion of social and economic problems.
Although pure literature has made considerable gains, the main
achievement has been in other directions. The audience of the literary
artist has been less than that of the reporter of affairs and
discoveries and the special correspondent. The age is too busy, too
harassed, to have time for literature; and enjoyment of writings like
those of Irving depends upon leisure of mind. The mass of readers have
cared less for form than for novelty and news and the satisfying of a
recently awakened curiosity. This was inevitable in an era of
journalism, one marked by the marvelous results attained in the fields
of religion, science, and art, by the adoption of the comparative
method. Perhaps there is no better illustration of the vigor and
intellectual activity of the age than a living English writer, who has
traversed and illuminated almost every province of modern thought,
controversy, and scholarship; but who supposes that Mr. Gladstone has
added anything to permanent literature? He has been an immense force in
his own time, and his influence the next generation will still feel and
acknowledge, while it reads not the writings of Mr.