The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-04


 roweT felds of usefalneness, CT ii Romols end Doroshea had ea reainQalsh their dreams of splendid possibilities and he content to do their duty im the narrower sphere of domestic hfe. Each was sue cessfal. inasmuch as each vas true to his or her ideal Ot the responsibility of hfe, and the compensation lay in the satisfac, ton of the needs of the higher nature, George Eliot heEsalf always Sals that In her own case worldly success vas more an accident than anything else, and that but ior toytuitous combination of cir cumstances she might never have al- tained the prominent position she occu. pied in the world of lasteFA No one ever had better reAhsA sAtion than she of the truth of the saying of LonRfellow, that true genius consists in doing what one can do well. without a thought of fame; and thai success. if 1t comes at all, must come because 1t Is deserved, not because it is desired. is was. therefore, easy for her to gauge success or failure by other than the usual standards. With the question ot rewards beyond the grave she never in her popular writings at. tempted to deal. SavonaTola might look for pardon for.his human failings and for the attainment ot eternal felicity through the intercession of the saints or the Blessed Virgin; Dinah Morris have the same trust in the merits ot Jesus-she deals with sha faith 0! these characters only as 1t influenced their conduct to- ward their fellows here. For the rest, the great novelist aims to illustrate tn her works the bearing of circumstances on the formation of character, and the fact that, apparently, acts will often exer, a most potential influence for good or evil She shows how our sins and errors. though they may be repented of, can seldom be retrieved; that repentance for wrong-doing may make our evil an in. sirument of good, through the discipline of the spirit; but that we cannot uaravel the tangled skein that has slipped be yond our reach, and too often the doing ot one wrong act only leads to the com mission of a worse, in the endeavor to escape from the consequences of the fast.
 There Is no hopelessness in all this. h IS simple uath. Fer so-called critics to find fault with her for delineating life as it really is. instead of as piece of ma chinery operated by some imaginary power, shows at least a remarkable in. hrmity of judgment. The late Dr. l. C.. Holland, in an editorial article h .Scyfb nsy's at the time of George Elioe's death, alluding to her Middlemarch "a work in which her idea of success and failure, and that of re,rieutive consequences of past sins and mistakes, are both illus trated with peculiar power mentions a young friend who, on finishing the book closed it with the melancholy remark, Us that allf' Dr. Hollands young friend was a dolt. If he would always have seen virtue triumphant and villainy foiled, he should have confined himself to reading Sunday school books, and wit messing the pres: ntation of msdern melo. dramas. In real lie the good and bad swim together, and it is hit or miss which comes uppermost. The chances are that the earthen jug will smash the porcelAin cup.
 The sort of criticism of which have spoken arises among class Of good pc l. pie, who, knowing George Eliot to have been an atheist, imagine that her outlook must necessarily be gloomy, and they ac- cordingly read the gloom into her works Probably her real attitude toward human life is truthfully described ir the follow ing passage from her husbands biogra- phy of her:
 In her general attitude towards fife George Eliot was neither op,imist nor pessimist. She held to the middle term which she invented for herself of melior- ist. Sac was cbeered by the hope and belief in the gradual improvement of the mass; for in her view each individual must find the better part of happiness in helping another. She often thought i, wisest not to raise too ambitious an ideal, especially for young people, but to im- press on ordinary natures the immense pos abilities of making a small home circle brighter and better. Few are born to do the great work of the world, but all are born to do this. And to the natures capable of the larger effort the field of usefulness will constantly widen.
 writer who attempts to describe the mental character of George Eliot, gives the following account of an interview with her:
 l remember how, at Cambridge, walked with her once in the Fellows Garden of Trinity, on rainy evening in May; and she, somewhat stirred beyond her wont, and taking as her text the three words which have been used % often as the inspiring trumpet-cails of men the words God, Immortality, Duty--.pro- nounced with terrible earnes,ness, how inconceivable was the first, how unbe. lievable the second, and yet how per. emptory and absolute tue third. list ened, and night fell her grave, majestic countenance turned toward me like q sibyps in the gloom 1t was as though she withdrew from my grasp, one by one, two scrolls of promise, and lets me the third scroll only, awful with inevitable fates.
 With all this the reader of George Eliots works has nothing to do. IL mat ters not that Marion Evans, Mrs Lewes, or Mrs. Crosby whatever name she was known in private life-held that there is probably no God but natural force, no heaven but an approving conscience, no