A NEW BIRTH IN LITERATURE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue I, 26 June 1897, Page 8

A NEW BIRTH IN LITERATURE.

As eminent literary man, discoursing on the future of art and literature, proclaims his firm belief that a * new birth’ is at hand. ‘We have knelt to ugliness too long,’ he says ; ‘ the world has lost its enthusiasm, its faith, its confidence ; we are no longer men, but children. The mere fact of living ought to be a cause of rejoicing. And, if this could be brought home to man, happiness, not sorrow, would be general. I was called upon to formulate my views about literature recently, and then believed the moment favourable for a new Renaissance. * I believe it more strongly now, and I repeat what I said then, that it will have, in common with the old, the character that this latter derived from the Hellenic period of art—that is, a worship of beauty for its own sake. Both these ideal springtimes of human imagination derive their extraordinary arrogance from a magnificent strength, from the sentiments of energy and power exalted to their supreme degree. Both signified the most superb affirmation of Life. And in the one, as in the other period, art was the natural transfiguration of persons and things in the plentitude of their being. * The new Renaissance ought to commence with the re establishment of the cult of Man. And the new artist, like the old, will share with science th* faculty of creating, will continue the work of Nature in its highest manifestation an<l noblest form by holding up to man an ideal Guided by the ancient spirit, the artist to-day uiu«t join art and life indissolubly, discovering truth, creating beauty, and diatributing joy.*