New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-03
HAWTHORNE.

Nathaniel Hawthorne did not write the great
American noye-that miraculous thing for
which critics of a certain type are always look
ing-but he remains unquestionably the great
American novelist. He is the one classic of
our fiction in whose writings may be dscened
the note peculiar to the masters The ceebra-
tons at Salem. Concord and elsewhere of the
centenary Of his birth which occurred on July
i, 1904, express nothing if they do not express
recognition of this fact When similar honors
were paid 20 Emerson last year, they were
offered necessarily as much to the moralst
as to the prose writer poet. The Concord
oracle drove at conduct Hawthorne drove at
the Requirement OF mems minds, and If in him.
too, the spirit of New England was strong
that he loved 10 seek the literary motive in
the moral issue. he had. on the other hand In
even greater measure, the diSinterested In
stinct OF the born rOmanCer. In acclaiming
him acclaim the most notable manifesto
ton Of the artistic temperament in American
literature
When the analyst has reached the end Of
his examination of any one of the great writers
in English or European fiction. he has to admit
that what distinguishes his master from the
little men is neither his substance nor his style
exclusively but the fiery working in BOTH of
the creative faculty. Hawthorne a writer
In the strict technical sense of the word, Haw
thorne as an embodiment of the NewEngland
conscience appeals to us with uncommon force,
but it is also TO Hawthorne the man of genius.
telling tales because he cannot help himself,
that the world renders homage. The special
development which he gave 10 this central gift
Of his, the gift characteristic alike OF the real
list and the romanticist in the higher walks
Of literature, constitutes a question by itself.
Genius always seems abnormal phenomenon,
but it is when keen sense OF the inspiration
in things that are normal governs its mani
festations that we value ii most. Thus Thack-
cray or Hardy may not enchant us as we are
enchanted by Scott, but they leave n more
lasting impression, and Balzac haunJs the mind
as with terrible images OF the eternal passions
where the glamour of Dumas, incomparably
witching it may be, is bound TO fade until
renewed intercourse with it places us once
more in thrall Hawthorne is of this more re-
Elective group in the company of the immor-
tails. Although naturally. inevitably as
the author OF The Three Musketeers himself
he spun his fabrics of romance, his materials
were figures more human, crises more spiritual
and of a wider application than any Of which
the great trenchman ever dreamed.
We hear much Of his melancholy. Compare
it with the morbid preoccupaton of Poe, and
you will realize the more wildly how Haw-
thOrne's melancholy, though an important ele-
Too great stress has been laid upon the dark
nature of his favOrite themes. If he let his i'm
agination play around the consequences of sin,
it was only in part because of the sombre
streak in his character and far more because,
with the artists eye, he saw the dramatic pos
sibilities in the subject. At bottom, like every
creative writer he life steadily and saw
it whole. He has much in common with Tour
geneff and especially with the brilliant Rus
slams feeling for tragic posture OF affairs
in the everyday life OF mortals He is per-
haps more austere than either Tourgenieff or
Hardy; one breathes a colder air III his books
than in theirs. But this is not 10 say that he
overstates the truth On the contrary, no nov
elist has ever practised a more beautiful, more
balanced, veracity; none have ever surpassed
him in power to make the reader feel that thus,
and in no other way, could the creatures Of
his Imagination be and act. They are Of like
stuff with ourselves, and our own lives might
we'll be- but for the grace Of God, like unto
their lives. 1t is this humanity of his which
gives Hawthorne q place apart from men ike
Poe and Cooper. lie touches the heart as they
could never touch It. But, we repeat, 1t is be-
cause he touches the heart through golden
tongued romance because he is of the great
line Of born story telIers, that he survives.