St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-01

and powerful genius for art in general,
especially for the art of fiction. Our
fathers wandered in the wilderness, fol-
lowing the stars of their gods, Field
ing, Scott, Thackeray, Dumas, and of
their goddess, Jane Austen, TIL the ris-
ing of that bright Occidental star, M.
Flaubert, and, later. of Count TOlstoi,
like the sun in all his glory. Thus
Mr.. HowellS, in accordance with mis-
theory, qualities even the gratifying
sentence about Scott which we have
quoted. We did not cite the whole of
1t. for the purpose of strengthening and
comforting the friends of Sir Walter.
The whole passage runs thus: "All
this is not saying Scott was not great
man; he was great man, and a very
great novelist, as compared with the
novelists who went before him." Here
the hypothesis of modern superiority
comes in. and vet we are not sure that
Scott'S greatness is much increased
by comparison with Fielding, who
certainly went before him, or
with Cervantes. Mr.. Howells might
be expected to prefer the Able Provost
to Sir Walter, for s'Manon Lescaut" is
decidedly more like the novels of this
new age than Sir Walters are, except
in spontaneous and inimitable native
excellence, where it is far superior.
Sterne, Furetiere, LIE Sage are all
novelists who went before Scott and
whom reader of Mr.. Howells might
expect him to prefer before Scott. How
ever, it is comfort to learn that, for
his generation, Sir Walter was great,
and that he has only been eclipsed by
the generations since the author of
'Salammbo" saw the light.
Vet what miserable dnlI-wlttQn
age was that in which Scott shows pre-
eminent! 1.-THE generation which he
wrote for was duller than this; slower
witted, asthetically unframed, and i'll
maturity not so apprehensive of an ar
tistic intuition as the children of to-
day."
As to the apprehension of an artistic
intuition" we are prepared to admit
the charge without presuming to under
stand it. What is ito apprehend an
artistic intuition? Are modern chill
dren very quick at it? Do they get
more chances of exercising this faculty
from many living novelists than from
Scott? Is it the apprehension of artistic
intuitions that enables US to feel
pleasure and awe in the darkening
omens Of the Bride of Lammermoor'"
or IN ''Wandering Willie's Taller" Is it
the wondering heir Ellangowan hears
the ballad-snatch that recalls him to
himself
"Are these the Links O. Forth, she said,
Are these the Crooks o. Deer
Do we apprehend an artistic intuition,
or what is it that thrills us, when AN
other for Hector" is the cry? Is an ar
tistic intuition apprehended when the
living and the dead loves meet, as they
deem, in ''Old Mortality" Is it an ar
tistic Or an inartistic intuition that we
apprehend when we are pleased by
Dalgetty, or Louis XI., or LIE Balafre?
Mr.. Howells' critical Technology is not
yet familiar to us and clear. Perhaps
he means either that modern novelists
since Flaubert give us more of these
good things than Scott, or that modern
children are too clever to care for these
good things. The latter theory is very
probable. That Scott was "a prentice
ficer. is, to certain extent, conceded.
Like Montague he could only do his
best when he was pleasing himself, and
terseness was never his strong point.
Mr.. Howells probably means this
when he says that she went about
half mile to express thought
that could be uttered in ten PAGES
across lots" Whether ''ten PAGES across
lots'' is shorter or longer distance than
ten PAGES across the prairie. the street,
or potato field, whether the voice car
ries better "across lots" we do not pre-
tend to know. Yet the charge Though
by no means unfounded) comes oddly
from an artist of the circumlocutionary
school, one whose foible (his critics hint)
is to say not very essential things at
great and dull length, and in strange
and dull newfangled dialect.