Inquiries and Opinions

Inquiries and Opinions is a book by Brander Matthews. The contents list gives, among others, pieces called Literature in the New Century, The Supreme Leaders and An Apology for Technic. A bracketed note under the heading Literature in the New Century says the paper was read on September 24th, 1904, in the section of Belles-lettres of the International Congress of the Arts and Sciences, held at St. Louis.

The text says that everywhere now in the new century we can perceive the working of the democratic spirit, making literature more clear-sighted, more tolerant, more pitying. The text says that here in America we have discovered, by more than a century of experience, that democracy levels up and not down. The text says no critic, British or American, has ventured to discover any irreverence in Joan of Arc, wherein indeed the tone is almost devout and the humor almost too much subdued. The text says the stage-manager receives from the author only the spoken words of the play, with but summary indications as to the gestures, the movements, the scenery, and so forth.