ry of rhythm the poet contrives to express the
tremulous hesitance of Viola's mood as it could not be expressed in prose.
There is a need for verse upon the stage, if the verse be simple and
colloquial; and there is a need for poetry in the drama, provided that the
play remain the thing and the poetry contribute to the play.

VIII

DRAMATIC LITERATURE AND THEATRIC JOURNALISM

One reason why journalism is a lesser thing than literature is that it
subserves the tyranny of timeliness. It narrates the events of the day and
discusses the topics of the hour, for the sole reason that they happen for
the moment to float uppermost upon the current of human experience. The
flotsam of this current may occasionally have dived up from the depths and
may give a glimpse of some underlying secret of the sea; but most often it
merely drifts upon the surface, indicative of nothing except which way the
wind lies. Whatever topic is the most timely to-day is doomed to be the
most untimely to-morrow. Where are the journals of yester-year? Dig them
out of dusty files, and all that they say will seem wearisomely old, for
the very reason that when it was written it seemed spiritedly new. Whatever
wears a date upon its forehead will soon be out of date. The main interest
of news is newness; and nothing slips so soon behind the times as novelty.

With timeliness, as an incentive, literature has absolutely no concern.
Its purpose is to reveal what was and is and evermore shall be. It can
never grow old, for the reason that it has never attempted to be new. Early
in the nineteenth century, the gentle Elia revolted from the tyranny of
timeliness. "Hang the present age!", said he, "I'll write for antiquity."
The timely utterances of his contemporaries have passed away with the times
that called them forth: his essays live perennially new. In the dateless
realm of revelation, antiquity joins hands with futurity. There can be
nothing either new or old in any utterance which is really true or
beautiful or right.

In considering a given subject, journalism seeks to discover what there is
in it that belongs to the moment, and literature seeks to reveal what there
is in it that belongs to eternity. To journalism facts are important
because they are facts; to literature they are important only in so far as
they are representative of recurrent truths. Literature speaks because it
has something to say: journalism speaks because the public wants t