The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-09-11
OUR LITERARY BUDGET.
rnE nIsronroAL IMAGINATION
what Would Have Becn the Conseq 'ence
II Such and Such an Event Hsd MOI
Occurrcd-Things Hang on Trthss.

and 4 man could show both knowledge
and fancy. In our own lives we know
how much hangs on triles. You take
one side of "A street, and miss fortune
or an affection, which might have Deeh
yours had you taken the other SIDE. lou
neglect to answer a letter, you PICK up
an old lady who has been run over by
a cab-nay. you look up and see your
Fate. instead of looking down ana miss
ing her-and all your LIE II aIlereu' pV
il is. too. in the history OF nations: Cup
pose the King had not halted at warren,
mes: suppose James nose had not oleu
at Salisbury; suppose somebody, N hoSJ
name ! forget, had done as ne propo sti
TO do at Queen Annes death' suppoSS .a0
Modes had won at Marathon OF 'ut ~ a..
Gems M Tours. or Hasdrubal NJ lne -uo
taurus: suppose that Napoleon nad Ho'
suffered from indigestion at Waterloo
or that Grouchy had not msinleTPIe1cu
his orders and where IS history way
take a case on which We cannot d"el,'
and which suggests reflections wnlch
every one can make for himself. sup
pose a certain Roman governor ma Deeh
an honest man! . ,......
IN answering these problems; but, on the
whole. would the turn of a straw, when
seemed 10 be so momentOus, haze made
much difcrencef We know how our char-
scter shapes our lives, and we d0uDt
whether accident is so potent, after au'
Say Won meet the wrong Fate, and mar
nv unhappily Would you have been
imclier with another Fate. Say you mss
q fortune by n slight neglect Has hot
your whole career been series Oh
slight neglects? You take up tract
oil have VISION
like ColOne! Gardiner or Pascal. ! am
certain that Colonel GARDENERS CONVEX
sion had long been ripening; one day or
another the vision would have come,
whether he was waiting Tor that par
ficular lady or another II not that tract
some other tract would have produced
It's results; you were maturing for that
psychological alteration. II we apply inns
idea 10 national inste0d OF individual
life. it may appear that the accidents
were not so very momentOus. Say That
the French King had reached the from
tier. Tant mieux pour lui, but the Reyo-
luton would have gone on. Say that
GrOuchy had come up, 'an0 that N0po-
leon had been well, We and the united
continent were not 30 near the end Of
our resources as France was: we should
still have beaten the Corsican or another
field. Besides Grouchy'S blUDdcr was
not an accident 1t was part Of habit
Of missing chances which had sprung
up in the French army ever since the
defeats in the Peninsula, themselves con
sequent on Napoleon's undertaking TOO
much, even for him.
Say the Persians had won at Marathon
Could they have held Greece, % they
held the lOnians, so that Greek civil
zation would have expired? La oil PROB
ability that was quite impossible for
Persia. For once, in spite Of oligarchs
and jealousies, HeQas would have been
united in resistance; she might even have
gained by the struggle. Say that Car
thage had supported Hannibal, and had
allied herself with Philip Of Macedon
They could not have held Italy; they
could not have reduced Rome 10 a village
and imposed a new civilization on tho
world. Had Edward H. been Edward
J., Bann0ckburn would have been lost:
but you could no more subdue Scotland
than we can hold Afghanistan If
Charles had marched on London from
Derby. if the Welsh squires had come
in, and if the English Jacobites had been
true hearted. still. in q very few years
james and his priests would have been
sent packing again. History would have
gained a romantic page, but England
would be much what she is 9t present.
The king would not have had better
chance than Louis XVIII. and Charles
y; he would have squandered his OPP
portnnities rs readily. Had the Armada
landed her men England would have suf-
fered, hut few of the invaders would
have seen Spain again. Had Charles
Martel been defeated, the Saracens, in
the long run. would have met the fate Of
their cOuntrymen in Spain. The move
ment of the world may be deferred, but
not actually diverted The great stress
of national character and circumstance
is stronger than any accident of war
Andrew Lang in the Illustrated News
of the World.
The MaIady OF Style in French Literature.
How many writers are there III France
who have carried literary mandarlSm
50 far that they care for nothing except
the entertainments of stylei How many
artists of admirable talent we might
mention who do not deign TO think
what results their writings may
have or what germs of corruption their
stories may disseminate, their preten-
sion being to remain Indifferent TO the
vile crowd, Indifferent TO their epoch and
its events, needless of purity, of honesty
and Of justice, uncOmprOmslng arusLs
who write for their own pleasure-when
they are not simply sacrilegious priests of
10 base ends. But, whether sincere or
insincere, the writer may plead, if he de-
sign to plead, the doctrine of | Art pour
Fart, and quote Flaubert and Bullion.
art, says Flaubert, Having its reason
in itSClf, ought not TO be considered rs
means" All the intellectual beau
ties" says Button, that are found IN
O fine style, all the relations Of which 1t
is composed are so many truths as use
full fLd perhaps more precious to the pdb-
lie mind than those which form the mat
ser Of the subject.
The artist, according TO Flaubert, must
not write a single line with view to the
demonstration of a truth, or intervene IN
q narrative where he can have no bust
ness. 'inasmuch as the beautiful and
the useful have TO contact with one
another" and inCsmuch as "a novelist
ought TO abstain from expressing his
opinion on the things of this world. AS
for the malady of style, the lennementS
of what has lately been called with GER
tain affection lecriture, we have only TO
read the correspondence OF tlaubert III
order 20 comprehend the intensity OF the
tortures which its victims undergo. 10
iudce from these letters, full of cries Of
main and despair, we might imagine lie
NAL d'ecrire to be one of the dolorous cir
cles forgotten by Dante in his Inferno"
and discovered by the author OF Ma
dame Boyary" in the course of the years
he passed struggling with phrases, wrest-
ling with perfection and writing month
after month in the fortunes OF voluntary
infecundity. Certainly the career and
artistic aspirations of men like Flaubert
and the Goncourts are noble and faSci-
mating: but the development Of their dog