[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have only
just had the pleasure of reading your splendid article, "The Bond of Letters," in the Spectator of August 23rd, and I hasten to offer you my sincere, though somewhat belated, thanks for same, and for the noble ideals and sentiments expressed therein. I ant only an ordinary British workman earning my living by manual labour as coachman-gardener, and I am emboldened to address you because some two years ago you kindly published a letter from me concerning the beauties of Homer's verse. The publication of these notes on Homer brought me several interesting letters of appreciation from all parts of the world, including far-off Australia. A barrister in Ireland pleaded " the bonds of literature " as his reason for addressing me, a perfect stranger.
You say : "What a different world it would be if Englishmen —all Englishmen—cared for English literature." I am perfectly convinced of the truth of that argument. But you go on to say : "There is no sign that they are going to do so.". That is perfectly true also. We are living in a materialistic age. All the poetry and beauty is being driven out of life. Tennyson was our last great poet, and he has been dead some twenty-five years. Have we a poet to-day worthy of Tennyson's mantle? I. trow not. If I may.coin a phrase, I say that motorism, mechanism, and materialism are fast killing the poetry, the beauty, and the inward happiness of life. The world is mad. It is the pace that kills. No great poem will ever be evolved in a whirl of dust.
Again quoting from your article, you state truly that " if the public would turn its attention to the great treasures of literature, the effect upon the national character would be incalculable." No man, for instance, who had drunk deep at the perennial spring of our great English prose and poetry would for a moment think of setting fire to town halls or smashing windows in order to get some grievance, real or imaginary, rectified. No, the cause of this is ignorance. "There is no darkness, but ignorance."
1„ should like to say a good deal more on this subject, but your space is valuable. nevi-ever, I should like to thank Lady Dunboyne for her helpful letter on " The Bond of Letters," which appeared in the Spectator of September 6th. Personally, I have, years ago, adopted her method of acquiring by heart some of the masterpieces of Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Tennyson. and others. The genius of these great men has garnered for us the harvest of imperishable beauty and given it immortality. Their writings lift us from the dust and discord of the present troubled world into a higher, a purer, and serener atmosphere.
I wish your article, "The Bond of Letters," could be placarded all over the country, that he who runs may read. What are we to think of the present insensate railway strike ? As I go about among various sections of workmen I am astounded at the ignorance existing among them. And this after forty years of free education! Our elementary schools have been more or less a failure as regards real education. I started to work in the fields at the age of nine and had little school education, yet I have gradually got together a small library of most of the great masterpieces of prose and poetry; and they are a great asset. And if this can be done in the green tree, what can be done in the dry ? What is the mental pabulum of eighty per cent. of the British workmen?
Ephemeral rubbish.—I am, Sir, &c., T. Wusox. Spring Street, Rugby.
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