Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-12-21

morbid susceptibility of evaporation. 70 which
q NEAR n Sc and the badness OF tue law in
such matter Will be sting NJ 10 the last de-
gree" -
His very idleness, AZ Mr.. Forster we'll Says.
was Strenuous" ike his work. lie walked
eighteen miles in four hours and a half 10 the
full heat OF glowing summers day simply as
a sort of relief for the strain OF h,s geEyes. On
another occasion, Mr.. Forster SAYS.
'But he did even his notl1inks IN a strenuous
way, and on occasion could make gallant fight
against the elements themselves. lie reported
himself, TO my horror, thrice wet through on
single day, dressed tour times and finding all
sosn Of great things broueht OUT by the rains,
among the rocks on the sea-beach."
When he Is living in GsZoa, in the middle of
winter, he dashes over to London just TO Try
the effect of reading 1.-The Chimes" 10 his init
he was III bed only once for tive or three hours
at FriboOrg, and had siedged over the Simplon
through deep snow and prod sious cold. his
dash into the sditeeship OF the DGisy Nssrs and
out OF il withia three weeks was highly char
acterls'ic of the high pressure of his nervous
decision. Apropos Of this matter, Mr.. Forster
says very truly that ''in all intellectual lsbors
bis viii prevailed 30 strongly when he fixed It
on any object of desire that What ese its attain
meDt might exact was never duly measured
and this lead TO frequent strain ami uncommon
spare" Everything he did, he did with this
imperlous resolve 10 let his volition take its
own way, and il led him no doubt into some Of
the greatest mistakes OF his life. He liked 10
mind strained intensely toward the particular
ideal he summoned up In his fancy; nothing
else would satisfy him fer a moment
MT. Forster has very fair laugh at VI. Tame
for his wonderful blunder in thinking that the
maudlin youth whom Miss Charity Pecksniff
captured, and whom she lost AT the very altar,
was meant for ga gloomy manIac," aud ore so
powerfully drawn as TO make Us "shudder."
But there Is something quite just in NJ. Tsine's
general criticism that Dickens does draw the
madness of "fXed ideas" with extraordinary
power. Ii is the secret OF his marvellous de-
scriptions of murderous feelihg-of Jonas
Chuzzlewt's for example also of Sykes wan
behring's after the murder of Nancy, and, again.
OF the murderous schoolmaster in "Qur Mutual
Friend" And IL was precisely the extraordi-
nary capacity Of his own mind for the tension
or liked ideas which enabled him to do this so
powerfully. intellectually, indeed, he hard v
understood anything else-though some of the
liked ideas on to which he tackled his pictures
were so delightfully."- limp-as in poor Mr.. Mod
dies and Dick Swiveller's case, and many
others-that the tiXity OF the thought escapes
the reader. As was the author, so was the man
Mr.. Forsters admirable book will certainly
carry one trait of Dickens right home to every
devourer of his biOgraphy-thst all the veins
and muscles In Dickens nature were ALWAYS on
the stretch towards some eager end. A mind
with less rest and less easy play in it, in spite of
all its real fun and laughter, is hardly con-
ceiyabIe.