Rudyard Kipling: A Criticism

The history of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's reputation, in this spring of 1899, lies between two phrases. In 1890 we were saying to each other, with a sense of free- masonry in a new cult "But that is another story." Today we are exhorting each other to "Take up the white man's burden."The value of each phrase is about the value of Mr. Kipling's reputation in 1890 and 1899, respectively. He was breaking me into harness, and I owe him a deep debt of gratitude, which I did not discharge at the time. The path of virtue was very steep, whereas the writing of verses allowed a certain play to the mind, and, unlike the filling in of reading matter, could be done as the spirit served. Now, a subeditor is not hired to write verses he is paid to subedit.