THE DIAL <&nrn=|Kontf)l2 Journal of Eiterarg Criticism, igcussion, anfc Information. THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of each month. TERMS OP SUBSCRIPTION, 82.00 a year in advance, postage prepaid in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; in other countries comprised in the Postal Union, 50 cents a year for extra postage must be added. Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current number. REMITTANCES should be by check, or by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL. SPECIAL RATES TO CLUBS and for subscriptions with other publications will be sent on application; and SAMPLE COPY on receipt of 10 cents. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. All communications should be addressed to THE DIAL, No. 24 Adams Street, Chicago, No. 177. NOVEMBER 1, 1893. Vol. XV. CONTENTS. PAOB ANONYMITY IN LITERARY CRITICISM . . .249 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY: Sum- mary from President Bonney's Closing Address . 251 THE MASTER OF BALLIOL : Press Tributes ... 253 COMMUNICATIONS 254 The Improvement of Newspapers. C. TS.. Adams. Mr. John Burroughs on Poe. Edward E. Hale, Jr. The Decorative Sculpture at the Fair, and Its Pres- ervation. A Travelling European. A " Western Style " in Literature. A. H. M. A Curiosity of Literary Style. W. H. Johnson. THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS, AND ITS PRESI- DENT. E.G.J 257 RECENT TENDENCIES IN ECONOMIC AND SO- CIAL SCIENCE. Edward W. Bemis .... 260 LINCOLN: A CHARACTER STUDY. John J. Halsey 263 RECENT BOOKS OF POETRY. William Morton Payne 265 Gilder's The Great Remembrance. Hale's For Fifty Years. Miss Guiney's A Roadside Harp. Mrs. Sangster's On the Road Home. Madame Darmes- teter's Retrospect. Rawnsley's Valete. Rhoades's Teresa. Barrow's The Seven Cities of the Dead. Selections from Augusta Webster. Roberta's Songs of the Common Day. Campbell's The Dread Voy- age. Wetherell's Later Canadian Poems. BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 269 Professor Huxley on evolution and ethics. Charac- teristic stories and sayings of Whittier. The in- fluence of Ruskin's work on modern life. A text- book of French literature in French. A life of Shakespeare copied from original sources. Factors in American civilization. A new volume of essays by Coventry Patmore. A manual of physics for high schools. " Builders of American literature." Travel-sketches by Geo. W. Edwards. BRIEFER MENTION 272 NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 273 LITERARY NOTES AND MISCELLANY .... 274 A Rose from Omar's Grave. The Late Mr. Free- man's Opinion of Emerson and Browning. M. Zola and Mr. Oscar Wilde. Progress of the Newspaper Press. TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 276 LIST OF NEW BOOKS , . 276 ANONYMITY IN LITERARY CRITICISM. The question of responsibility for criticism is one of the most difficult with which the liter- ary profession has to deal. Should it be signed or unsigned, personal or impersonal ; should it express the opinion of an individual or of an organ ? The question has been ably and am- ply discussed from both points of view, and both systems (in English-speaking countries, at least) have been found to work well in prac- tice. In behalf of the principle of anonymity it is argued, first, that criticism has increased weight when put forth with all the authority of a paper or review that has gained the confi- dence of the public ; second, that by this method alone is untrammelled criticism, free from per- sonal obligations or reservations, to be secured. Upon these two leading arguments the case for anonymity rests ; others are occasionally brought forward, but examination shows them to be either of a derivative nature or of minor importance. In behalf of the criticism for which personal responsibility is assumed, we are told, first, that all such criticism really is the work of in- dividuals, and that it is unworthy to pretend that it is anything else; second, that inten- tional unfairness is less likely to be displayed when authorship is avowed than when it is con- cealed ; third, that injustice is done to the critic himself when the periodical to which he con- tributes assumes all the credit for his work, and that this assumption reacts upon the work, tending to make it colorless and weak. It is hardly necessary for the editors of THE DIAL to state that the arguments for personal responsibility seem to them the weightier, since they have, from the start, adhered to the prac- tice of publishing signed criticisms of all the im- portant works reviewed. While granting that the impersonal system has some advantages, it seems to admit of still more abuses. The nature of these abuses has been succinctly set forth by Mr. Besant in a recent article. He says : " I should rejoice to see the custom of signing crit- icisms in literature and art become general, for several reasons. First, because it would instantly, I believe, demolish the flippant smartness and insolence with which some papers allow their columns to be disfigured smartness which disguises the fact that the critic knows
