The times., 1898-04-10


it is doubtful if his fame would ever have
been made had it depended on the pres
snt book for its making. For one thing.
the title is not so alluring. 1t might have
been better business, and would have
been quite as accurate, to call 1t The
Romance of Glorifed Dissenters, foI
that is what it is. Every person in the
book of any consequence, with the pos
sible exception of the heroine, belongs TO
this class of people, and she, though she
IS not exactly q dissenter is certainly glo-
rified. Mr.. lie Gallienne is one OF those
novelists who see everything through
solution of rainbOws' if there is such
thing. His language is iridescent; his
maginations are golden; his ideas of life
are broad and sunshiny.
Seriously, although the new lie Gal
lienne novel has a number of rather rtdic-
ulous faults, there are some things that
are very real about il. 1t is the story of
young enthusiastic and intellectual
preacher who, being engaged TO sweet
little creature, one of the congregation,
and loving her, too, with all his heart,
finds himself to his surprise and dismay,
loving another woman, a woman OF the
world with all his soul. 1t is another
case of the Damnation of Theron Ware,
except that in this case the minister
affection is returned. In spite of this he
not damned after the unpleasant manner
of Mr. Frederic's preacher. The realities
of this remarkable tale are so wound
about and engulfed in the sentimentali-
ties. and the artifcialities and the glori-
ications, and other adjuncts OF Mr. lie
Gallenne's language, that they are al
most lost but there is. here and there, a
really delicious bit which is almost free
from gauze and spangles There is, for
instance, a description of literary ana
philosophical society, composed of dead
and-alive old gentlemen, and constituting
the sole literary life of a small town
This is the way it is described:
Its Transactions seemed mainly composed Of
| TTeasurer's reports. with occasional paper on
| fossils Indeed, the spark Of lite in the pa
| thetic old society was It's real interest IN the
| antediluvian and prehistoric For the life that
was dead il had perfect passion and 1t some
! times held conyersazOncs to gaze at 1t through
microscopes. In everything that didn't in the
least matter Of thes mild old gentlemen were
genuinely learned. Not that they hadn't read tGe
| great poets even in the original Greek, Latin
| and Italian. Poets in dead and foreign lan%uages
were a form of fossil, and Engli-h poets-with that
| divine bloom upon them!- they had way OF
fosslizing by spcctacits, so that they never read
| them alive Thus they had read Shake
| speare, in the original
The spectacle OF young, fresh, live
minister of the gospel appearing before
| this society TO read a paper on Walt
Whitman, is something for gods and men
to smile at. This is the experience that
| he had:
| The Canon in the chair smiled benignantly,
with an expr, S. on that only compars 10 but
tered rolls He was Just 800 years old that very
day. and the audience scant fifty or sc-Tan
| from a hundred and fifty upwards The lee
| ture was a straightforward and eloquent account
| of Whitman's writings and doctrines, with
| tracts from Leaves of Grass, and from begin
| ming 10 end you might lave heard a pm drop,
particularly during or two of the quot
| when it was ended the buttered-ron expression
| had faded from the Canons face. and his Our
young friend expression was ready Tor the char
| mans remarks. L3ndonderry's sitting down
| awakened a few sad echoes that no doubt
| hand -cappings, but seemed like the Tapping OF
| the wings Of night-birds, frightened by light.
| The Canon kindly said, showing his pas
| toral interest in the local newspaper that the
verses which their Young friend, Mr. Rob Clith-
| eToe, who present with them that evening,
| had occasionally contributed TO the Colchester
| Argus were in his opinion better than anything
1 Walt Whitman had written, though he confessed
| that his acquaintance with Walt Whitman was
| of the slightest.
And there was a Morris wallpaper too,
| introduced by the young minister into his
| study, which was surprise to the village.
'eLaw what taste TO be sure!'' had exclaim-
ed the paperhangeTs wife, as they opened the par
| eel. How anyone dare live with such patterns
| is beyond me" The papcrhanger's wife yerbed
better than she knew. Few, indeed, are those who
dare live with beauty.
Even old Mr.. Talbot ventured in TO lcok at it,
| keeping very close 10 his wife. 1t was so the old
man had stood open-mouthed before the first
steam engine, and here again the Devil plainly
| al work The world indeed changing
| beneath the old mans feet and the heavens open
| ing as never before in his time-with, he might
| be right, some assistance from beneath; and-it
| was undoubtedly safer in the kitchen.
| Mrs. Talbot. in these matters, lived and loved
by faith in her boy she called him But
she had her doubts which she expressed in a way
TluT ghg old prgluu qg Cle NuS hat
| she not without a sort OF blind insight.
Il suppose its all right, boy," she said ''and it
| sounds silly 10 say about q lot Of harmless lines
| and flowers, hut II seems TO your old mother that
| there's something wrong about that paper
| something almost wicked in il. II reminds
Of that nasty music you and jenny so fond OF
| playing.
Here Theophi enyeloped her in a huge hug and
aughngly mocked her with playful care7ses srnil-
| ing to himself all the time. For the music she
| had referred TO Dyor.tk
There are people who will like this
book there are people who will en-
JOY the cloying fragrance of some hot
house flowers. and they will read ii
| eagerly, from cover to cover; and there
are people who will not like it at all and
they will be disgusted. 1t is a book so
crammed with the personality, fancy,
and imagination of lie Gallienne that
there is no neutral opinion to be had
about it. Liking it or not liking it is a
matter of temperament, As to its lit
| erary style, that. too, is peculiarly lie
Gallienne. 1t might be suggested that
if he could use his imagination without
letting his fancy run riot, if ne could be
| philosophical without being mystical, if
he could paint a character as il is in
stead of glorifying it with all sorts of
misty and poetic and barely possible at
| tributes, he might write a great book
| with his daring, and his originality and
his command of the queens English, but
perhaps he could not do these things
| and be himself. The probabilities are
that he viii be lie Gallienne, and revel
in flowers and dreams. and clouds and
eXtravagant metaphor to the end of the
chapter. He is sort Of Aubrey Boards
ley in literature.
| Despite the apocryphal character of
the three principal figures, there is a
human interest in them and a skillful
working out Of character. The intense
sentimentality of the book is like a
strong fragrance in flower. The story
of three people situated as these three
are-the two young lovers, happy In each
| other. although the man is far superior
to the woman in intellectual reach and
depth Of nature: the woman, Isabel made
to be the mate of Theophil. appearing
| Just too late; the mutual love of Theo-
phil and Isabel, and their mutual renun-
citation; their determination 10 keep the
knowledge Of their love a secret from
Jenny, the afiianced wife of the young
minister and to let all go on as it had
been; Jenny's accidental discovery OF
the secret; her death, and the discovery
| Of Theophil that she has hold on his
heart which is greater than he had con.
ceived so that il is impossible for hin
10 marry Isabel; the strange chapter ir
which Theophil and Isabel die together
by mutual agreement-all this seems
considered merely as a plot about the