The San Francisco call., 1897-06-20
NATURE AND IIIERAIuRE.

ese toward nature, said that she would not
cross room 10 lock at the most beautiful
view the world afforded Since that day we
nave seen great change in the literary taste
VI the world, but in no regard is this change
greater than in the attitude of fiction-wrfters
'O"ard nature, and what we may call literary
geography Our poets have always been
granted certain familiarity W ith nature and
nef haunts. Indeed, we have been rather in
CIlned to leave them clear field. AT the
most our hctionists have had but little use for
nature, save to make her fit the convenienees
OF their imaginary life. For them the flowers
and the birds have been merely handy pegs,
so 10 speak, upon which TO hang garlands of
fancy. The plants have grown aud blossomed
at their call, regardless of cline or habitat
Inc birds have accommodatingly changed all
their esta blished habts,
Gladly singing all the m oontIde
Never waiting for the noontide
ana 1.-THE flowers that bloom in the spring"
have not hesitated to proIong their season to
the late autumn, ii thus they might serve the
purpose OF fiction.
The change now to be noted in this direc-
tion IS one OF the most hopeful indications of
the day for real and permanent literature
1t may, in TACT, be regarded as this genera
tons definite contribution to the literary
genius OF the century. It is the true realism
that seeks not TO make nature subservient TO
the eXigeneies OF the Story-teller. but To brine
the details OF art into harmonic relation with
lie, as she reveals it. Not the least part of
1homas Hardy's genius lies in the fidelity
WIN winch he keeps us close TO nature. He
mas aone more than give US men and women.
We have had them in fiction for nearly q CEN
Jury. indeed, we have had them always. de-
splte the iaet that we have had, also, the pup
PET and the lay-fgure in fiction. But Hardy.
"a MS novels. has made u land 10 live for our
oeIghting, and that he has peopled the land
with live men and women in no way detracts
from the interest and reality o the and as q
definite entity.
The Wessex country OF Hardy's novels is as
real as Rotten Row or Forsyth street or the
Back Bay or even North Beach at our own
doors. From Downstaple 10 Castle ROYAL,
from ChrlstminSter to Casterbridge we may
FaVet without guide. and we know heath
and down and fen and upland as we know our
own daily walks, beca use the master has
studied them closely and lovingly and re-
corded them faithfully. In fact, Hardy has
painted nature much more lovingly, though
perhaps not less truthfully, than he has peo-
pie, and his novels are in themselves a re-
markable study OF her moods and aspects
humanity, and not she, plays the subservient
part.
with greater tenderness, with more genial
ldeught upon the human element Robert
Louis stevenson has also given US books that
are the result OF deep intimacy with nature in
her many moods He shows US field and forest
and stream; We learn, with him, where the
birds nest and play, where the deer lift their
heads shove the bracken, and where the hare
runs through the brush, and through all this
he makes US know and love the human side of
her teemlng life. So, too, we have Blackmore
and Doyle, Barrie, Crockett and Hall Caine
giving US studies OF human life that are as
well faithful chronicles of that other life,
everywhere about US, running commentary
upon and Interpretation OF our own life.
On this continent the return to nature has
been characterized more by spirit of direct
study than of indirect presentation Our
nature-lovers have placed her in the for
ground, rather than used her as background
and the res ult is greater wealth in our liter
ature, OF interested and interesting, strdy of
Localities than almost any other country can
boast do not mean of scientific treatises,
but we have what may be callcd the journal
lntime, OF nature in various localities There
can never be another Th9reau; never another
chronicle OF the life of Walden Pond Man
and condition were unique. Such 2 comblna-
uon could hardly occur again, in this day OF
railroads, rapid communication and cleo
tr1city, but Tho-eau, beside Walden Pond
gave the clue that has LED a worthy fol-
lowing Of American writer's into the
observe and chronicle, and to bring Us
near to natures heart. in p literature tn at
Is OF permanent delight John Burroughs in
the Hudson River country, Charles Conrad
Abbott in New Jersey. Bradford Torrev in
New Eng and, John Muir in California, have
opened to Us new ald beautiful worlds beside
our doors, and their essays have unouestiop-
ably had marked effect upon our more
recent fiction. Charles Egbsrt Craddock in
the Tennessee mountains, Gable in Louisiana
Gilbert Parker in the Canadian Provinces
Sarah Orne Jewett in New England, and a
dozen others in the South and West might be
named as bringing US not merely into human
unity on this great continent, but as giving
us through their fiction, certain loving
familiarity with natures signs and seasons in
their various localities
But none of these has given US more than,
perhaps no writer of fiction, pure and simple
has brought TO US so much of. the subtle. pen
trating influence of "all outdoors as James
Lane Allen has done. His lOng-annouuced
latest novel, "The Choir Invisible, lust ia.
sued by the MacmillAns, is a marked advance.
as an Interpretation Of life and nature. over
anything Mr.. Allen has heretofore done. "a
Kentucky Cardinal" by the same writer, has
been aptly styled perfect calendar OF ns-
ture's year with sights, sounds and fragrance
for the senses, and hint of deeper correspond
ences for the SOUL but this is even moro true
of "The Choir Invisible" which is as fully
a story OF nature as of life. There is in if
the same tender human sympathy that
characterized MS beautiful story of
''Sster Dolorosa," but the insight in
this latest work is deeper. the fellowship w.th
nature broader and the human element is
entirely subordinated to the feeling for the
vivid, living, onward march of the inanimate
life amid which the human drama is PLAYED
Those who have watched his work can feel no
surprise if, in his next book, Mr.. Allen dis
cards altogether the unnecessary thread OF
narrative which he has here etofore carried
with him on his wanderings amid natural
scenes, and contents himself with portrayine 2
for US the marvellous, silent drama which.
without human accessories, he can yet make
and interest
This literature Of nature is perhaps the best
thing in literary art that the end OF the Gen.
Iury has brought US.
We're so m ad that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have
passed
Perhaps hundred times, nor cared 70 see.
Says Fra Lippo Lippi, and this holds good in
books as in pictures. They do, in giving us
true pictures of nature. bring US into greater
sympathy with life, and this is. as much as it
is anything, the object of a permanent liter
AZURE.
ON INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGES.
HIS FORTUNATE GRAcE-By Gertrude Ath-