The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1883-12-19
For the L. & M Household.

The turn of thought in your letter.
NJ B. c.. was made after the fashion oi
friend of mine with whom have been
discussing Carlyle and Carlyle-lsms'
in running conversation, extending
| through some two or three weeks.
And. to you-as to this iricnd-I must
say that | grant all YOU say, but object
that YOU do not say eHoUgh. Now. does
| that please vou> The trouble is we
base our argument upon different data.
and therefore necessarily arrive at DIFF
ferent conclusions After all. il is an
ungrateiul service 10 examine too close
| ly into our herO's daily life. be that hero
Carlyle or-anyIody. No man can be
king to his valet. you know. Carlyle
| fell short of heroism. and yet he was
nearer to being hero than any man of
his age.
As for Anthony Trollope. what shall
I say: | don't know. His autobio-
graphy (or is it biography, merely?) has
not yet fallen into my hands. l know
nothing of him except the little picked
| by intuition from ''Barchester Towers
and the very little more to be gained
| from a sketch-a mere Outline-copied
| from MacMillan's Magazine. | Judge
1 illnl 10 nave Dttu Il llIdl tdpdUIc VI
| drawing to himself the heart of his fell
| low-man, which is power Indicative OF
something crander and truer and nobler
I than is possessed by men ordinarily.
From his books one would take him to
| be a thoroughly active man, with keen
| eye for cause and effect, and a keener
| perception of the subtle and sometime :
apparently unreasonable links which
connect these two. His could not have
been a mind with metaphysical bias.
The ''cause why" must have given him
| less anxiety than did the effort to invent
| a natural and logical course of conduct.
! Mr.. Mathew Arnold said once that
| conduct is three-fourths of life and
| SO Mr.. TrOllope must have felt it to be.
Now you must bear in mind that know
| very little about Mr. Trollope's books,
and very much less about his life.
/ Perhaps. with justice. / should not ex-
press an opinion at all. But to formu-
! late an opinion is Just a step ahead OF
/ expressing it /; and having taken the one
! step it follows naturally that 1 should
/ not hang back from the second.
! The writer in MacMillan's (Mr. Ed
ward 4. Freeman.) sums up the whole
matter of criticism in the following very
pregnant sentences, which | quote for
/ the benefit of those who have not seen
4 the paper in question:
Il will not do Mr.. Trollope such an
| i'll turn as to compare him with George
Elliot. the greatest. l suppose. of all
writers of fiction till she took to theories
and Jews. Now, assuredly, Mr..
Trollore could not have drawn Romola,
and | do not think he could have drawn
Mrs. Poyser Yet the characters of
/ George Elliot and the characters of Mr..
/ Trollope have something III common.
something which stands in contrast, for
! instance with the characters of Dick
ems. Mr.. Trollope had gone lar 10
write himself out his later work is far
from being as good as his earlier. But.
after all. his worst work is better than a
great many peoples best; and, consid-
ering the way in which it was done, it is
wonderful that it was done at all.'
Now. / am not at all sure that Mr..
Freeman's criticism is correct through
out. But | can youch for the truth of
that last sentence. That a man can
deliberately set himself to work at a
specified time and require himself to
produce q specified amount OF matter in
given time. seems wonderful to me.
l know something about regular hours.
or perhaps to be more accurate. |
know something about the rdM of them
And | know, also, something about
how hard it is to make ones mind occu-
pv itself ercluSirely with 3 certain train
Of thought upon a sudden and abrupt
call. Mr.. TrOllope must have had mar
vellous concentrativeness. and marvel
lous self-cOntrOl.
Judged by .'Barchester Towers he
was man who looked English life
s0uarely in the face and represented it
as it appeared to him. His books, to
me, seem more like photographs than
purely creative work. And perhaps
this is. in certain sense, the very high
est praise to be bestowed upon writer
of fiction.
Now. NJ. b. c.. you have my thoughts
about Mr.. Trollope. | cannot promise
to hold fast to what | have said. 1t
may be that when 1 have learned more
about him | shall alter my opinion IN
toto. However, you have it as ii stands.
1 have been reading Felix Holt late
ly, which accounts to very great ex-
tent for my faint praise of Mr.. Troll
lope. 1t hurts the best writers to be
/ brought in close contact with the stu
| pendous powers of George Elliott
/ The very first chapter of this Felix
| Holt is lesson to all writers OF fiction.
/ IN il the author places herself entirely
| out of sight. The barest bit OF explain
/ atory las des" are vouchsated the rea-
+ Ger. Transome and his mother are left
/ to do their taking, unassisted by the
( crao for nf them and VET closing the
/ book. we have 4 clear conception OF the
/ character o. both. from the very Begin
ming.
The incidents of the story only serve
TO elaborate those characters. Ii is
marvellous TO me how she did it. |
have tried again and again to grasp the
possibility Of such comprehensive WORK.
IA possibility which | could never have
believed possible had il not been 20
clearly demonstrated to me.
1t is this OUTLINING of character. clear
as a charcoal sketch upon white paper.
in which George Elliott's genius best
exhibits itself. There have been wri-
tiers with an equal force of logic. there
have even been writers of more eNquis.
ite grace than hers, but l doubt if any
21iter will again arise in wh.'sc hanGs
the passionate human soul will become
as a harp of many strings. made to give
forth in a few deep chords prophecy o.
all the music of the lite which lies be.
yond and around and about us.
When George Elliott tells us. a
woman's hopes are woven of Sunheams