The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-12-09
HALL GAME. is DISSECTED
RIGOROUS TREATMENT OF THE
NOVELIST BY PROF. PHELPS.

Caine's Novols-Closing Lecture of the
Series-Four Lectures on Music.
Prof. William Lyon Phelps gave the
last of his series Of University Exten-
sion lectures last evening. the novelist
considered in the lecture being Hall
Caine. Harmonic hall was filled, but
all were accommodated. as the extern
sion management had $50 more chairs
added to the seating capacity of the
hall. In his lecture last evening Prof.
Phelps cut up the novelist, Hall Caine,
into rather small pieces, terminating
the massacre by consigning the novel
lists latest work, "The Christian" to the
limbo of novels Of little literary merit.
He said in part: "Hall Caine was
born in 1853 in little English town in
Northumberland. Much of his early
life was spent on the Isle of Man.
His education was limited, and his
reading seems to have been confined
to a large extent to the Bible and
Shakespeare His knowledge of the BIZ
bic is inaccurate, as may be seen by
his novels. OF Shakespeare he seems to
be better informed. On the whole he
impresses us as not being a well read
man. Part Of his early life was spent
in promiscuous newspaper work, and
he also wrote several articles on social
ism in which he is believer.
"TIis principal novels are The
Deemster,' The Manx Man. and THE
Christian These three novels deal
with life in the Isle of Man and London.
He is now a rich man. made so by
the sale of his books and lives in a cas-
tie on the Isle Of Man. The pictures
Of Caine which we see remind us of
the saying of Carlyle, when he saw
the portrait Of DeQuincy, That the
man has been in hell The wild, glar-
ing eye of Caine indeed gives him the
appearance of having seen the place men
toned by Carlyle. OF his novels The
Deemster has been dramatized. There
is wide divergence Of opinion as to
the literary merits Of his novels. Some
consider Caine the greatest genius of
his age; others say he has not spark
Of literary merit. Both these opinions
are doubtless wrong, Everyone must
admit that he is a strong novelist. He
has not committed the objectionable
sin in literature Of being dull. His lat
est novel, THE Christian is not so dull
as Mrs. Wards 'Marcelle.' The Manx-
Man." novel based in life in the Isle
of Man, has three principal characters,
cultured man., an uncultured man
and pretty girl 1t is a. realistic nov
ell and apparently we can trust his
description of the life and customs in
the Isle of Man. The box also shows
quite a clever ANALYSIS Of humon char
acter.
"At the bottom Caine is a moralist.
He prates much about literature and
art, but as matter of fact the zeal
of Gods house has eaten him up. His
novels are written for moral purpose.
| The moral in The Manxman' is the
| old familiar proverb The way Of the
| transgressor is hard This Is shown in
a strong and interesting manner in the
| novel. There is so doubt as to the NOR
al effects Of his novels. That his pur-
| pose is moral cannot be questioned 1t
| is with him as with DR.. Parkhurst.
No one doubts but that DR.. Parkhurst's
! efforts are moral, but there is some
doubt as to whether the result of his
| ~~S
| same is true Of Gaines novels. Judged
by a saying of Caine himself, that
books that live must be sound on a
moral basis, The Christian' certainly
| is not destined to live, as it's morals are
bad. Gaines novels are unlike those
of Stevenson, which, while written in
an artistic style have strong and
healthy ethical effect.
"In The Manxman" the pretty girl
Kate is nothing but passionate ami
NAL, nothing but good looking girl.
Take away her good looks and we
should care nothing for her. In the
story it is hard to sympathize with
Kate. All her misfortunes she brings
on herself, and one has the feeling that
her blood be upon herself. The ma
iority of readers find the moral in
Philip, the cultured young man. With
him it is struggle between love and
ambition. Philip 1 dislike. To be per-
fectly frank, he is. disgusting to me.
He is one Of those men whom it Is
pleasant to meet. But he just misses
it in every instance. He never rises to
be a hero. He gets all he seeks with
any real sacrifice on his part
"To me the chief lesson of the novel
is drawn from the cultured Pete. Rough
and rude as he is his character is SUBJ
lime He has the making of great
character. I don't wonder the pretty
girl Kate don't love him. He is not
such a character as would attract his
| love- But he has great honesty and
constancy, and although he loses every
| thing even his dog, one feels at the
end of the story that it is better after
| all to be in Pete's shoes. Whether the
moral effect of the novel is good is a
matter of doubt. The onl saying that
: Honesty is the best policy is an at.
tempt to influence men to be honest fol
/ a mercenary motive. That is why Sun
day school books teach the boy to bs
: harmful and immoral. They are not
true to facts in life. Honesty is some.
times the best policy and sometimes moi
from a worldly standpoint. The Sun
day schol books teach the boy to be
honest because he will marry his en-
= ployer's daughter. I shall change The
e saying, BE virtuous and you will bt
1 happy to BE virtuous and you will bs
, | good
S 1.-THE novelist's latest work, 'Tht