Show AS its TO Mr lilt Andrew Lang InnS Is weary of ot the thelong thelong thelong long biographies s that keep streaming from the publishers hers presses and enters a n protest In tho the London Morning Post against the Life and Letters plague He lie says sos sosA saysA A great Greot dual donI that Is of ot tho the essence of ot a n mans life lire Is iii never told and a great deal d al of ot what Is utterly common commonplace commonplace commonplace place Is In usually narrated The surface currents of ot our existence greatly re resemble each other these thc u In lives live anti and letters are exhibited In needless length Tho The Inner verity perpetually p escapes us thanks to the tho decent decant habitual reticence cence of ot literary executors Their I 1 esteem e leem anti commend Uy fly nil all means menn do not tear the heart before the crowd like tho the heart of Keats Ien tl or of ot more recent victims of ot biographical or editorial Indiscretion Every human heart must t exhibit a picture of ot meal Incalculable Interest hut but how lion rarely ought tho the veil to be b withdrawn In tho the case l SO of the Usual biographers n ny nu Mr MI Gladstone OIn stone called thorn them the error dots does not lie In withholding Intimate facts but In unrolling lengths of ot fact which are commonplace There Is much truth In nil all this and It will meet with general approval A Agrell great grell t part of or modern Lives JV S and Let Letters Letters Lettera tera la Is little more than padded lau mu laudations lotions nail panegyrics of or the subject of ot the biographies Their real characters charac harac tore aye are not to be shown up UI they are areto areto to be bo shown hown as perfect compounds of sweet reasonableness s When l published his Carlyle he lie Wan WM set Bet upon by the tho critics and everybody else elBo because lie he presented Carlyle to the public as na he was a human being with strong likes and dislikes In many ninny respects a rough ratio rudu man but genuine genuIne ine inc throughout lie He showed showell the tho world a It 1 mann man and not a mere macre parlor model and null society ornament Mr rr Langs ex ox exceptions exceptions to tho the ordinary Life and Letters are ore well vell taken |