Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-06-14
"MR KIPL1NG's WORK so FAR
william II. Bishops Criticism and Re-
view in the June Fnrmm.

NiliAhAn lblsnOp's NTlItCtsm anu Att~
view in the June Forum.
The most thoughtful and careful review
of Rudyard Kiplings work which has yet
been attempted is probably that which
William Henry Bishop, himself writer of
leading prominence, contributes to the
June number of the Forum. In opening
his article Mr.. Bishop quotes the saying of
Sainte-Beuve, that it is "more important
for young writer, at the beginning of his
career, to do differently from others than
to do BETTER" and goes on to say that
"Mr. kipling has confOrmed most exactly
to this precept, and from the outset he has
both done differently from his fellows and
better than most of them. He drew an at
tention that could not be denied him. he
has charmed us with fresh power of Oh
servation in the revelation of a new field;
with bold and direct narrative; with
skilful character drawing; imaginative in
sight into the domain of the rare and
curious; with passages of genuine pathos
and with pervading play of humor which,
| though it too often descends TO buffoonery,
does not lack some of the higher features
of that quality In looking over Mr..
kipling's published works as a whole Mr..
Bishop finds in their ensemble, more dis
tinctly than in any single one of them, "a
protest against tameness, diffuseness and
over refinement, and a decidedly bellgerent
and pugnacious spirit which delights in
disturbing apathy and unceremoniously
knocking about accepted traditions
1t was Mr.. Kipling's good fortune to be
! the discoverer of a new field-"India quite
| untouched by the literary plow," and in
Mr.. Bishops view he has probably done as
well with it as could be expected from any
| young writer who has great and sudden
! popularity thrust upon him. Judged,
however, by Walt Whitman's maxim,
! Whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect
person, that is finally right" there is in Mr..
| kipling's work mot little of pose false
sentiment mock heroics, devl-may-care
defiance of prophecies that ought not to be
detied, and rude conventonalisms of style
| quite as bad as those of the smoother sort
they aim to set aside" His verse is often
dangerously nigh to pure doggerel; the
'Barrack- Room Ballads do not always
rise above the coLcert-room ballads which
/ they distinctly take as a model But Mr..
kipling is young. There is time enough
for change and evolution in the years be-
fore him, and we may well use delibera-
ton in considering the true place in litera-
ture of this latest and most interesting phe-
nomenon.'
Mr.. Bishop regards "a Matter of Fact"
a short story in Mr. kipling's latest volume.
as the most striking example of his peculiar
quality of wildly sombre Imagination. 1T
is an astounding piece of invention. A
volcanic eruption in the depths of the ocean
throws up sea serpent to struggle, bleed
and die upon the surface, while his consort
splashes and bellows about him in portent-
ious grief and dismay" The picture
which he draws of the strange sights and
sensations of this cataclysm of nature, the
all-pervading smell of the bottom of the
sea, the thick, white fog, the sea gray with
mud, rolling on every side, is all very
grandly conceived, but the three news
paper men who witness it from a tramp
steamer 'are very poor choice of wit
nesses for such an occasion, and the satiriz-
ing moral attempted is cheap and ineffec-
tive
Two characters in one of Mr.. Kipling's
ballads talk of
-Four things greater than all things are:
Women, and Horses, and Power, and War"
Here, in Mr.. Bishops estimation, you have
pretty well Mr.. Kipling's own tastes and
the larger categories into which his work
falls, but when you come to woman she is
treated in a vastly diminishing perspective
The general masculine tone toward her is
the dislllusioned gallantry of men who
would much rather escape to the club than
linger. Indeed Mr. Kipling himself gives
us to understand that he would rather sit
out with Mulvaney-he of the Three
Musketeers' and pipe, and listen to the
"reminiscences of that reprobate paladin
and representative British soldier than to
cOnsort with beauty as the most taking
social function that the army, at least, and
all its affiliations can afford.
Mr.. Bishops main criticism of Mr.. Kip
ling's work appears to be that he has not
yet introduced us to the real india or in
terpretated to us its true depth and mean
ing. He looks at it from within European
lines, or when he departs from this he
shows us only an India of signs and Won
ders. Inside this external India there is
an essential one which Mr.. Kiplng as yet
has not touched.
Mr., Bishops conclusion is that Mr. Kip
ling is chiefly a romanticist, but the pres
sure upon his, as upon all intelligent minds
in our times, is such that he can never
help giving us much more than mere ro-
manticism.
And now one would like to know what
Mr.. Kipling thinks of Mr.. Bishops criti-
cism. Probably he thinks, or cares, very
little about it, with his pen earning him
money faster by far than that of any other
writer in America today.