The herald., 1894-04-15

vi tnO bAbHflbbf HnQg CibOWAcAOs Va VIC
anarchist. II 1t was Mrs. Wards
intention to show to the world how
deep-seated the evil ia, how honest the
effort to reach it is on the one hand, and
what dishonest use OF 1t is made on an
other side. she must feel satisfied with
her work, from her own point OF
view. And. considering what the
facts CT the case are, and the present
state of the labor movement, it
10 hard to believe that this was
not her intention. She has taken the
poisonous growth and with strong and
sure hand has uprooted it and shown it
to US from root to flower; and again,
she has taken it at the flower and fol-
lowed the stem downwards and searched
the eecret roots Of IL. The fault is not
that Of the thinker. nor Of the novelist,
If the book does not tell us how the
growth is to be destroyed. If the secret
were known, it would have been in use
before now.
The magnitude of the difficulty is all
visible, like the height of a mountain
which rises abruptly from the sea, be-
cause it is a woman, young woman,
and a woman under disadvantages, who
10 represented az ready to devote her
life to the task of overcoming it. She
brings to her self-imposed labor real
and true enthusiasm directing the doubt
ful strength of a passionate girl.
Marcella is indeed as passionately in
earnest from first to last 0e heroine OF
Greek tragedy. Her faults, her errors
of judgment, even her weaknesses, are
all the results of her own conviction that
she Is on the eide OF right, since she is
on the side OF all poor against all rich.
The impossibility OF the camels passage
through the eye OF the needle is ae moth
ing compared with the difficulties which
exclude the rich man from Marcella's
young Utopia. Love himself is nearly
beaten in the struggle for one exception.
Even when he conquers, the world-worn
reader doubts whether the victory has
been comSsste and is to be lasting. &C
that he wishes he might know what be-
came of Marcella afterwards, whether
such great aspirations were ultimately
extinguiehed, after having been disap
pointed, and whether out of go much
goodness there did not arise some good
1t is a sure eign of the books worth
that one is in earnest with Marcella
though we'll knowing how hopeless ii
the quest for that Holy Grail whict
should herald the feast of satisfied anC
peaceful humanity. For we fear tha
the search is without hope from tht
first, and devotion to q desperate cause
appeals to the heart and ie strong
arouser of sympathy. The heart Of the
world is ever womanly and suffers with
the vanquished more truly than 1t re-
joices with the victor.
No man can say whether such a woman
as Marcella ;a a present possibility o
the world. No man could have draw
such a character successfully, and few
would have been bold enough tc
attempt it. Only woman can tell III
surely to what heights girl may aspire
ana though she should speak of hersel
and not of heroine of fiction, we mer
should find it hard-not to believe her
since she has authority to speak-but Il
realize as possible from our manly
point of view what we are all willing t.
believe is real in her woman's jGdgmen
OF life.
have said that Mrs. Ward has han
died modern questions by the method
or in the form, of the old-feshioneC
novel. Perhaps the statement demand
justification, though the result needs NJ
defense. I mean that in actual extent
in the great number of secondary -et.e,
tive, in accurate presentation OF success
i've scenes, and in precise recording c
conversation, 'Marcella" belongs dis
tinctly to the school of Fielding. and no
at all to tho school of George Meredith
The work Is synthetic, proceeding, 30 t
say, from the character to the action
from Marcella's own nature to the doing
of her life and their consequences, an
never backwards. from the completes
action, by ANALYSIS, TO its motive. Opin
ion differs widely as to the compara
tive values of the two processes TO
throwing humanity's likeness upon tn
screen. For anything we know. the on
may be as good as the other whel
wisely and conscientiously used. No or,
but Mrs. Ward herself could tell u
whether she has. in this instance. dom
what she meant to do. Few writer
have enjoyed that final satisfaction ever
once in life. Whatever her own idea
may have been, the attempt to reach i
has given us very remarkable ant
complete piece of work, embodying
startling picture of modern England
which we Americans muet accept, how
ever reluctantly, as true, but which vi
shall have no reluctance at all in admir-
ing sincerely for its breadth, its feeling
and the conEummate detail of its execu
| ton,