The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-03-29
GEORGE ELIoT'S PHILOSOPHY
tc AtheE cum.


 they stand prominently above the genera average of such essays. They date from the period before Mr. Matthew Arnold had imported the method of Sainte- Beuve into English criticism, and, in conse- quence they suffer by comparison with later work oi q moro subtitle and artistic character. The collection invariabl, raises what must be the chief critical problem ia connection with the literary career of George Eliot. How is t, the reader ls impclied to ask, that mind which produced these essays. chiefly dur. ms .he years .a55 and 1850. could have gwen lhe Scenes of Clerical Life" 10 the world year later: What was the de termining motive which changed the translator O. Strauss and Feuerbach and the writer of these essays into the loving creator of Mr. Gilfii, of Bartle Massey and oi Dinah Morris! IL Is not SC much the la,e Towering of her genius that IS noteworthy. The end of the thriies '' seems the appropriate period for q nov elis,s debut. Both Thackeray and Miss Austen were thlrty-seven (the same age as George Eliot in I657) when anity aif and !" Sense and Sensibii,ya res pectively appeared. Trollopc was thirty nine when The Warden was pub ilshed, and " alter Scott was as old as for,y-,hree when "Waverly" first de- lighted the world. But all these had gwen indication ln one way or another of their powers.
 Nothing Tn these essays, nothing in the impression George Eliot made on her trends, indicated her possession of the fac ulty that builds up inciden, and charae- ter into a story. To the last she was somewhat dchclent in this, as Is shown by ,he fae, that she displays none of the worker : loy in her own production. To tel :, story requires that one should have uveG story. And 1t was probably ,te exceptional nature of her relations with 1eof2e Henry l.ewes, which commenced Tn i3Sl. that brought about the change IT Gecrlc Eliot which we have attempt- ,ng to po:n, out.
 These remarks may serve 10 illustrate remarkable passage in the same essay isoil which the previous quotations were i.Ahen George Ellot's theory ot the func- ton O! Inc novel Is there gwen. as well ,S hei view oi Dickens art. which was de- ve4eped by George Henry l-ewes in the F0'fn:~Efl Rt;ieso after Dickens death. me whole passage deserves quotation:
 The sreaies, benefit We owe to the ar ts,, whether painter, poet or novelist. IS tEe extension oi our sympathies Ap- peals banded on generalizations and statistics require sympathy readymade. < mora! sentiment already in activity {: but a picture of human life, such as great ..iiis, can give, surprises even the .rlNia. and selfish into that attention to what IS apart from themselves, which may be cailed the raw material of moral sen tnen;. When oco,, takes us into Luckle Hluekleoaekl; cottage, or tells the story of The Two Drovers, when Words worth sings 70 us the revetie of s.Poor Susan, when Kingsley shows us Alton Locke sazing yearningly over the gate which leads from the highway into the hrs. wooG hc ever saw when Hornunq pants group of chimney-sweeper more Is done towards linking the higher cIasSes with the lower towards oblitcrat- lne the vulgarty of exclusiveucss. than oy hundreds oi sermons and phllosophi- cal dissertations. Art is the ueates, thing to lite I; Is a mode of simplifying exper- ienee. ard extending out contact with our fellow men beyond the bounds oi our personal lot. All the more sacred is the task oi iae ariis, when he undertakes to pant the life of the people. Falsihcation hefe Is lar more pernicious than in the more ar;ihcia. aspects of life It is not so very serious that we should have false iceas about evanescent fashions-about the manners and conve. sation of beaux and ducheSses: but il Is serious that our sympathy with the perennial joys and struggles. the toii, the tragedy. and the humo. in the life ot our heavily laden fello. men, should be perverted. and turned towards false object, instead of the true one.
 Ot course mind of the power of George Eiots could not have been ee- cupled with such varied subjects wi,hoa, hitting upon some novel points of view or iellci.ous phrases. The following points are well put:
 Virtue, with Young. must always somnt -rlGSt never look straight towards the immediate object of its emotion and ef- sort: Thus. II man risks perishing in she SHOW himself rather than forsake weaker oomrade. he must either do this because his hopes and fears are directed 10 another world, or because he desires to applaud himself afterwards. Young. if we may believe him, would despise the action as folly unless it had these mo- tives. Le, us hope he was not so bad as he pIe,ended to be. The tides of the divine life in man move under the thick es. ice of theory.
 Love does no, say, ought to love- it loves. Pity does not say "it Is right to be pi,iful"-it pities. Justice does not say am bound to be just'-it feels justly. IL is only where moral emotion is comparatively weak ,bat the contem- plation oi rule oi theory habitually min gles with its action, and. in accordance with this, we think experience, both in literature and life, has shown that the minds which are predominanty didactic are deficient in sympathetic emotion.
 This IS only one example of the law by which human lives are linked together