A PATHETIC IMPOSTURE

Lord Rosebery once annoyed the Press by declaring that his ideal
newspaper was one which should give its news without comment.
Doubtless he was thinking of the commonweal. Yet a plea for no
comments might be made, with equal force, in behalf of the
commentators themselves. Occupations that are injurious to the persons
engaged in them ought not to be encouraged. The writing of `leaders'
and `notes' is one of these occupations. The practice of it, more than
of any other, depends on, and fosters hypocrisy, worst of vices. In a
sense, every kind of writing is hypocritical. It has to be done with
an air of gusto, though no one ever yet enjoyed the act of writing.
Even a man with a specific gift for writing, with much to express,
with perfect freedom in choice of subject and manner of expression,
with indefinite leisure, does not write with real gusto. But in him
the pretence is justified: he has enjoyed thinking out his subject, he
will delight in his work when it is done. Very different is the
pretence of one who writes at top-speed, on a set subject, what he
thinks the editor thinks the proprietor thinks the public thinks nice.
If he happen to have a talent for writing, his work will be but the
more painful, and his hypocrisy the greater. The chances are, though,
that the talent has already been sucked out of him by Journalism, that
vampire. To her, too, he will have forfeited any fervour he may have
had, any learning, any gaiety. How can he, the jaded interpreter, hold
any opinion, feel any enthusiasm?--without leisure, keep his mind in
cultivation?--be sprightly to order, at unearthly hours in a whir-r-
ring office? To order! Yes, sprightliness is compulsory there; so are
weightiness, and fervour, and erudition. He must seem to abound in
these advantages, or another man will take his place. He must disguise
himself at all costs. But disguises are not easy to make; they require