The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-10

regions.
A man of real genius in literature
is not found often among the hun
dreds of writer's. The initiative and
bright intellect can be discovered east
to be seen only now and then. Among
.uthors possessed of genius of the
genuine kind there are some who are
endowed with peculiarly rich and
fruitful powers and in them there al
ways abide both beauty and ever1ast-
ing freshness. There are literary
and there are found writer's
Of great productive power and rich
ness. My readers of the last three
years must have observed my admira-
ton for j. II. Shorthouse, an English
novelist, who died within a year. He
was the writer of but one famous book,
John Inglesant,' a very delightful
of high qualities-clean, re-
fined, elegant, idealized, imaginative,
at once historical and philosophical
Recently book that will attract Gull
tured readers in his native England,and
here and there a reader of good litera-
ture in our own land. was issued with
the title Life and Letters and Liter
airy Remains of J. H. ShorthouSe, in
two Volumes 8 vo.. of S65 pages price
$3.50 for both. 1t was prepared for
publication by his devoted and Guilt
waited wife. He was born g. Quaker,
became an extreme English Church
man. lived a retired, uneventful life,
being a business worker from his
sixteenth year until his death. He
was a dreamer as a lad and worker
as a man. He wrote but little. He
was engaged at leisure time in writing
his really remarkable and excellent
novel. After completing his book he
did not purpose publishing it. 1t was
first privately printed. It's reception
was decided, and his astonishment
marked. He made a real reputation
at once, and his admirers were the
foremost of the men and women of
distinction in his own land. | know
nothing of another book of his he call
ed Little Schoolmaster Mark. cit is
of religious flavor. His letters arc
praised for their serious character
and impressiveness. Several of his
Essays are published in the tive
volumes. a critic in "a Northern pub
LEGATION says:
The early essays contained in the
second volume are not at the present
time of engrossing interest. The later
essays include Mr.. Shorthouse's con-
tributions to periodicals and an essay
on the platonism of Wordsworth The
book is a worthy and Illuminating ac->
count of a man whose most charac-
teriStic work is not destined soon to
perish
Ever since 1 read John Inglesant'
probably twenty years ago-I have
held it to be among the greatest novels
written since Lorna Doone" appeared.
| know of no novels by living writer's
that equal it save some by Thomas
Hardy and George Meredith. 1t is
strong it is good-it is wholesome and
fresh, and it has power and magma
ton.
Mrs Humphrey Ward is the daugh-
ter of the late distinguished DIR.
Thomas Arnold the Head Master of
the famous Rugby school in England
He was eminent as a divine, teacher
and author. The richly endowT
Matthew Arnold, who was really su-
perior poet and one of the best Eng
lish essayists, was his son. 1t is rare
ly the case that a father has son and
daughter of such high intellectual
qualities as these. Mrs. Ward is the
wife of Professor Ward of the Univer-
sity of London, if ! remember cor
rcctly She is of rank the highest
among the living female novelists OF
the English speaking world. 1t has
been often suggested that she resem-
bled the late Mary Ann Evans, known
mainly by her pen-name of George
Eliot" But in point of genius there
is a marked distinction. and the
critical world will continue slow to
admit equality between them. l would
insist that the author of Robert
Elsmere" and David Greive" and her
later books, is not equal to the great
woman who wrote those mastery
novels. adam Bede." mill On The
Floss" "Romola" and "Silas Mariner"
I have not read more than three of
her books. Her last three | only
know through the reviewers. The
latest has been much scored for its
impure tendency. Why a woman Of
such excellence and finish, of style
should so prostitute her pen is passing
strange. Why a woman of her age
in life should prostitute her pen to
any manner of uncieanness is to be
deplored for young women read SIM
ply because of the high praise be-
slowed upon her for power of mind
and finish of style. | would not de-
preciate her intellectual gifts. but ]
do not believe she is the equal of
George Elliot" and by a great deal
If she is, then her later books must
be quite superior to those | read. Some
years AFRO Mr.. Charles T. Copeland
wrote of her in the "North American
ana Ilt duIliIlltu d super IL
cial likeness" between her and Miss
Evans He said.
"3oth women arc learned to the
verge of pedantry. both have a far
reaching interest in life and the
problems of human conduct, both get
their novels under way and keep
them under way by elaborate and Of
ten cumbrous means.
"But resemblance. partial even in
these particulars, ceases altogether
with these; and what seems to me
the radical difference between George
Eliot and Mrs. Ward--apart from the
difference in native ability
is to be found in their respective
of that moral purpose
which appears to be their chief bond
Of union
He does not think her remotely
equal to Miss Evans in the drawing
of character, in power and skill and
fidelity to nature. He says of some of
her portraits:
'In both instances she dresses her
puppets suitably and moves them
about in ain ample and statefully col
ored scene. These dolls walk and
talk: in contrast with the handiwork
of inferior artists they seem to live
and breathe-for never, it must be