Opinion and "Preaching" in Literature

I HAVE no wish to add to the sum of remark concerning Mr. Henley’s opinions about Stevenson, there being already on that theme comment, amplificatory and other, enough and to spare. But surely it is vain for Mr. Henley to enter objections against the “ preaching ” in Stevenson’s books, and this quite apart from the “ tu quoque ” that runs so readily to one’s lips. For, disclaim it as he may, Mr. Henley has done some admirable preaching in his time, and one may doubt whether future generations will find any greater occasion to hold him in friendly remembrance than his stirring little sermon on the supremacy of the soul, with its closing note, of which Stevenson himself might have been fond : —

But aside from this, — and if we began to quote we should settle the question out of hand, — are we ready to part with “ preaching ” in literature ? Can we really spare from our books the didactic and, what would needs go with it, much of the obiter dicta that make to many of us the spice of writing and of conversation ? For myself, frankly, I would as soon have a man without prejudices as a book without opinions. It is these that give the flavor: they are of the essence of individuality, and if we are to accept the dictum of the greater critics, that a book is to be loved because therein is embalmed a life, we must surely take some account of the opinions in which the life had its most marked expression. For, after all, is there anything more veritably a man’s own than his guesses at truth, his predilections, his notions of the universe, his surmises as to human fate ? It is these, and the loyalties, devotions, whims, prejudices, ideals, tastes, loves, and hates the world has left or brought him, that measure the effect of life upon him, tell what he has undergone at the hands of circumstance, how borne himself in all time of his prosperity, in all time of his tribulation. The poet Sill was at least partly right in liking In Memoriam because it reflected the views of a man much experienced in life. He was acting on the same instinct that leads some hundred thousands of us, gentle and simple, to watch for Mr. Dooley’s latest comment on events. We want opinions, and, in short, preaching.