Omaha daily bee., 1895-10-13

miles away" They have made the fatal mis-
take Of assuming that theirs is the only point
of view; IL they and the rest of humanity
differ 1t must be because humanity is in the
wrong, and have insisted so strongly on the
sacredness of plain unvarnished facts that
they have forced the reaCtiorhsts into the
other extreme, where they rebelously cry
out that fiction should pant not facts. but
fantasies, that it should not sadden and
deaden and depress, but ehthuse, intoxcate
and enrapture.
Facts, say these tho OF inestimable value
to the historian, are but the TOOLS the equip
ment of the novelist, who should give to us
what the history of a fragment of life denies,
poetic justice; who should reveal not only the
world without, but the vision within paint
ing not the bare realities of life as it is, but
the glories of life as 1t might be. For as
Brandes says: "The warm heart of the masses
wishes to believe like a child, to feel the
knights enthusiasm, the monks ecstasy, to
rave poeticallv TO dream melodiously to
bath in moons me, to hear the grass grow
and understand what the birds say"
And so the fight goes on and It is not likely
that either side will convince the other for
between Howells, with his somewhat arrogant
declaration that there Is no art exquisite
as the art of painting facts exactly as they
are, no fiction except that of facts nicely OBJ
served, thoroughly digested and faithfully re-
corded, and the man who believes that the
real truthfulness of all works of art is so
purely in the Imagination that the artist
never represents the truth, but an ideaized
image OF truth, there can be but little sym
pathy. Between Hall Gaines impassloned
cry of 'Fiction is not nature, 1t is not char
acter, it Is not imagined history, it is fall
lacy, poetic fallacy, pathetic fallacy, beauti-
full die, a lie that Is at once false and true
false to fact true to faith" and Boyeson's
calm acceptance of the realistic in literature
as higher order than the romantic or ira
ditional, there is gulf which neither can
bridge, and Stevenson, who believed so
strongly that actions speak louder than
words, could never bring himself to the point
of view from which action and emotion ap-
pear unseemly, aLd where in Saintsburys
words originality is regarded as a mark of
bad taste and insufficient culture. But there
are among us those who feel that the man
who realizes In work Of art an idea personal
to himself is an artist, no matter to which
school he belongs, and SO we can enjoy both
the daintily fine touches Of the writer who,
by careful analysis and dissection OF motives
has shown us a Sias Sapham and the virile
strength of those who, from the swing and
swift OF action have conceived David Bal
four or a Patrick Heron, for we feel that life
is too broad and deep, human thought too
progressive, to be bound by any one form of
expression, and we cannot agree with the
disciples OF realism that u is the final and
most complete contribution to literature any
more than we can believe that romanticism
alone could satisfy all sorts and conditions
OF men. Each Is needed for a complete ex-
preston OF the life OF today, and the touch
OF truth should be found in the books of each
school-the realist can map out the existence
or the average man, the romanticist picture
the concentrated, electric life which comes
to the exceptional man, ard both should ac-
knowledge the supremacy Of the purer ideal
ism whose apostles finding truth half way
between Its two antagonists, facts and fancy,
and unable to breath In the narrow bounds
set by realism, paint life artistically and sig
nihcantly, presenting all with the ideal sym
pathy Of poet, who comas not to copy but
to interpret nature, and feels 1t his business
ito paint no more Of body than shows soul''-
ITO bring the invisible full into play. Let the
visible go to the dogs, what matter?"
For the object Of art Is not invitation, but
creation, and the master In lteratUre should
sound all instruments in the sympathy OF
humanity, strike all chords OF the harp OF
life, revealing to US things that we do not
see in things we look at every day.
He should have both the clear sight OF the
seer and the divine utterafae Of the prophet
who, through the web OF sin and shame ana
sorrow which a world OF t:sncc ana change
weaves, finds the balance Of justice struck
somewhere sees not only The little achieve
ment, but the noble conceptions, which never
finding adequate expression here strengthen