The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-11-03
"The Ruling - y
~ ~ Passion. f"

Ruling Passion" by Or. Henry van DYKE
which hns just been published By tha
Scrlbners.
In ''The Ruling Passion" Or. van Dyks
has even excelled himself. The volume
| comprises collection Of eight short stories.
the scenes of most of which are laid In
the forests Of Southern Canada, with which
the author seems to he thoroughly familiar.
The atmosphere OF the stories is as fresh,
as pure and as lnvlgorating as Is that
OF the painless woods and the clear run
ming streams amongst which Dr. vha
Dykes characters are born. live their lit
tie lives and die. HIS people are mostly
natives, rugged and to the manner born,
whose lack OF contact with the outsido
world has left them unaffected by Its con-
Ventionnlities and in whom the ruling pas
! sion, whatever II may be, may be seen
plain and clear and indebted. One of the
stories u mainly about a dog. Yet bu-
man beings may gain much from it. All
OF the tales are worth reading. It would
be unjust to all to attempt to Institute
comparisons. One must read them and
Judge for ones self
He who reads carefully, even without
reading between the lines, may gain an
excellent idea OF Dr. Van Dyke and his
stories from a foreword which the volume
contains and which is entitled "a Writer'S
Request of His Master" 1t Is as follows:
Lord. let me never tag a moral TO a
story, nor tell story without a meaning.
Make me respect my material so much that
! may not slight my work. Help me to
deal very honestly with words and peo-
pie, because they are both alive. Show me
that as IN a river. so In n writing. clear.
ness Is the best quality, and a little that
is pure Is worth more than much thar Is
mixed. Teach me to see the local color
without being blind to the inner light.
Give me an ideal that will stand the strain
Of weaving into human stuff on the loom Of
the real. Keep NE from caring more for
books than for folks. for art than for
! lifo, Steady me to do my full stint of
work as well as can; aud when that is
done, stop me. pay what wages Thou
wilt. and help me to say, from quiet
heart. a grateful amen"
~
In the preface to the book there is also
much wholesome food for thought aud
much beautiful expression of wholesome
thought, which is more than can he said
of many another preface. "In every life
worth writing about" says DR.. Van Dyke,
there Is ruling passlon--'the very pulse
of the machine Unless you touch that
you are cropping around outside OF the real
ity.
Sometimes IT is romantic love: Natures
masterpiece Of benehclent selhshness. In
almost all lives this passion has its season
ot empire. Therefore and rightly 1t is
the fayorte theme of the story teller.
Romantic love Interests almost everybody,
because almost everybody knows something
a &c,
But there are other passions, no less
real, which also have their place and power
In human life, Some OF them come earlier
and sometimes they last longer, than ro-
mantle love. Thy play alongside OF it.,
and are mixed up with 1t, now checking It,
now advancing Its flow aud tlngeing II
with their own color
| Gust because love is so universal II
/ is often to one OF the other passions that
we must look for the distinctive hue, the
/ individual quality of life story Grant
] ed II You will, that everybody must fall
In love, or ought to fall In love. How will
| he do III And what will be do after
wards; These are questions not without
| Interest TO one who watches the human
drama MS a friend. The answer depends
upon those hidden and durable desires,
affections and impulses to which men and
women give themselves up for rule and
guidance.
"Music, nature, children, honor, strife.
revenge, money, pride friendship loyalty,
duty to these objects and others like
them the secret power OF personal pas.
sion often turns and the life unconsclousy
follows 1t as the tides in the sea follow
the moon in the sky.
~
when circumstances cross the ruling
passion, when rocks lie In the way, and
winds are contrary, then things happen,
characters emerge, slight events are Sig
nifcant, mere adventures are transformed
into rea' plot What care I how many
hair breadth 'scapes' and moving accl-
dents your hero may pass through unless
know him for man2 He is but pup
pet strung on wires. His kisses are wooden
and his wounds bleed sawdust. There is
othlng about him to remember except bis
name, and perhaps bit OF dialect. XIII
him or crown him, what difference does 1t
make?
But go the way about your work:
Take the least man of all mankind, as l;
Look at his head and heart. nnd how and
why
He differs from his fellows utterly
and now there is something to tell. with
a meaning.
''If you tell 1t at length. It is a novel;
| a painting. II you tell it 10 brief II Is
a short story--an etching. But the sub
ject is always the same; the unseen, mys-
terlous, ruling passion weaving the stun
OF human nature into patterns wherein the
soul is iaaged and revealed
ITO tell about some OF these ruling PAS