It  is  quite  safe.  Every  author  of
spirit  repudiates  with  lofty  scorn  the
notion  that  he  writes  in  obedience
to  any  mandate  from  the  public.  It
is  the  wretched,  degraded  politician
whose  talk  is  of  mandates  ;  authors
know  nothing  of  mandates,  they  have
missions.  But  if  so,  they  must  be
content  to  bide  their  time.  If  a  town
does  turn  out  to  meet  a  missionary,
it  is  usually  not  with  loud  applause,
but  with  large  stones.
As  for  the  critics,  the  majority  of
them   no  doubt  only  do  what    they


AUTHORS  AND  CRITICS  229

are  told.  It  is  a  thousand  pities  the
habit  of  reviewing  so  many  new
books  in  the  literary  papers  has
become  general.  It  is  a  trade  thing.
Were  a  literary  paper  to  have  nc
advertising  columns,  do  you  suppose
it  would  review  half  the  new  books
it  does  ?  Certainly  not.  It  gets  the
books,  and  it  gets  the  advertisements,
and  then  it  does  the  best  it  can  for
itself  and  its  readers  by  distributing
the  former  amongst  its  contributors
with  the  request  that  they  will  make
as  lively  '  copy  '  as  they  can  out  of
the  materials  thus  provided  them.
The  reviews  are  written  and  printed ;
then  begins  the  wail  of  the  author  :
My  reviewer,  says  he,  has  not  done
me  justice;  his  object  appears  to
have  been,  not  to  show  me  off,  but
himself.  There  is  no  sober  exposi-
tion of  my  plan,  my  purpose,  my
book,  but  only  a  parade  of  the
reviewer's  own  reading  and  a  crack-


230  AUTHORS  AND  CRITICS

ling  of  his  thorns  under  my  pot.
