The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-10
NEW BOOKS.
pr,er Reviews or Important snd Interesting
, New Publication.

Br,sr Review, or Important snd interesting
T, New Publications.
volume of the reflections Of that always In
t~erosting philosopher, Mr.. Thomas wentworth
Higeinson. is published under tho title Of Book
and Heart by Harper & Brothers. These arc
"os,ays on literature and life" and arc thirty
Ave in number. 1t 10 the twofold recommends
ton OF this author that he IL not interminablo
and not obscure. His meaning IL obvious, and
he seldom dwells upon q particular subject to
the sxtent OF more than q dozen pages. This 10
not TO say that no ts too obvious, and 1t 10 not to
cast q reflection upon those essayists, numerous
ut this time, whose subtloties and niccties Of
adjustment lead them at once TO great lengths
and to no particular conclusion. In his
first essay, "DiscontinuRnce Of the Guido
board" Mr.. Higginson considers that style Of
fiction which does not proclaim Its moral or Its
intention, but leaves the same confidently for
the readers Interpretation. Tolstoi, everybody
will remember, Is such an author, and Ibsen IL
another. One OF our most distinguished realists
and critics once interpreted an apparently very
meretricious book Of Tolstoi's, and showed con-
clusively that 1t had q motive white ne snow.
This was decent, and 1t might have stood as q
proclamation of tho fact In the case OF Tolstoi,
irritated by other and less well-considered
comments upon his work. had he not written an
essay entirely disproving the conclusions Of
tho critic who loved him. and justifying
tho others. As for Ibsen. 1t IL we'll
known that he has had at least forty inter
prefers, who have shown, with much earnestness
and at great length, that he had, for each Of his
many utterances, forty motives, all different
and all perfectly irreconcilable. Everybody
who has read Mr.. Bernard Shaw's Essence Of
Ibscnism" must have felt tho extreme subtlety
~ tho auhieCt under conaideratipn and muat
have apprehended the difficulty Of adjusting
Mr.. Shaw's Interpretation to tho interpreted
tions Of Mr.. George Moore. Mr.. William Archer,
and Mr.. Smith, professor OF modern literature
in tho College of Wales. Tho advantage at
tending upon the absence of tho guideboard
in fiction inheres In the interesting circum-
stance that everybody 10 at liberty to
determine for himself Just where he 10 at.
Under this permission any reader has the right
to decide whether or not Brand was demented
and whether or not the soul Of Peer Gynt was
superior to the consideration Of the attractions
and advantages Of patent-leather boots. Hedda
Gabler, without q guideboard, must remain for
ever an object calculated to excite an enormous
curiosity, and 1t 10 probable that Maeterlinck
would DO mysterious even with Q full provision
Of guideboards.
Mr.. HIgginson IL one of those who arc willing
to interpret for themselves. He lent to O young
woman what he calls Mr.. Hamlin Garland's re-
markable volume, "Main-Travelled Roads"
and she returned 1t with tho remark that she
greatly admired all the stories except tho first,
which seemed to her immoral. 1t closed, indeed,
As abe Justly pointed out. Mr.. Higginson says,
with Q striking scene In which q ~long-absent
lover carries OF the wife offs successful but un.
worthy rival. and the tale ends with tho words:
Tho sun shone on the dazzling. rustling wheat;
Nha fath nrn ukv m hA-k 800 th~,. .-l
the world lay before them" The young
woman, impatient of the difficulty of orig
tnal Interpretation. made nothing Of these
concluding words. They seemed to her
merely an unassociated ornamentation, but Mr..
Higginson gladly supplied the guideboard. He
pointed out to her that behind this momen-
tary CLEAN Of beauty lay an absolutely hopeless
future; that though the impulse of action was
wholly generous, and not oven pessional. yet
Nemesis was close behind; and that the mere
fact of the wosnan's carrying another mans
baby in her arms would prevent all happiness
with her lover. Tho young woman could only
reply, Mr.. Higginson says. that It was all very
true, but that she had never thought of 1t. Tho
: question arises whether abe II to DO blamed for
never having thought Of 1t; likewise
whether Mr.. Hamlin Garland ever thought
Of 1t. Perhaps, II the truth were known.
the author Of r"Main-T Travelled Roads had
1t in mind to convey to his readers the idea
that everything was lovely, Notwithstanding
the fact Of the other mans baby. Surely Thack-
cray intimate as much when he marries Henry
Edmond to the mother of Bearix, though tho
circumstances In Esmond's case were, of course,
considerably different. At the sams time, the
absence OF the guideboard renders It possible for
anybody to make his own Interpretation. and
to persuade any young woman Of the truth
nf N In hA ta h 49, ~
Garland is willing to credit Mr.. Higginson
with an insight Of great clarity, even though
he himself had never seen the matter in tho
same Light before; and it may DO that Tolstoi In
sorry that he hurried to interpret himself in q
crude and unfavorable manner, even while an
expert In the business was doing exactly the
right thing by him. The world Ii full of snares
and pitfalls. waiting for those that haste or
those that will not soc. We can only hope that
Mr.. Garland 10 all right, and that he has not,
pending the publication of Mr.. Higginson's
essay, written an essay of his own to prove the
possibility Of happiness In the case of q woman
carrying another mans baby.
In another essay, entitled "a World Outside
Of Science" Mr.. Higginson considers the mys.
tory attending the birth of o product Of the i'm.
,agination. Many of the poets, being selhshly In
terested, have considered the Same matter.
Shelley said that the mind in creation Is as q
fading coal, which Some invisible influence, like
IN incessant wind. awakens to transitory bright
mess, and Schiller wrote to K6rner that what i'm.
pressed him when he sat down TO write was
usually some single impulse or harmonious tone.
and not any clear notion Of what he proposed
s writing. Mozart was rather moro involved. He
wrote: N ideas como as they will, I don't
know how. In O stream. II can hold on to them
thoy begin to join on to one another. as II they
= were bits that o pastry cook would Join on in
Ids pantry. And now my soul gets heated, and
II nothing disturbs mo the piece grows larger
and brighter until, however long 1t Is. l can SEE
. 1t at Q glance" This 10 distinctly curious. ant
h the absence of Q 9uideboard one can only be
lieye that in the process Of composition Mozar,
seemed to himself to DO transforming q stream
into . large and bright pie. Mr.. Higginson say
that his aim in this essay has been ITO assert
from the point Of visw of literature that q worlt
outside of science exists." The testimony O
Mozart would seem to DO sufficient proof Of this
Undoubtedly. such . world does exist. and, un
doubtedly. with or without suideboards. it Ia