The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-03-15

not hang together, DO not lead each from
eanh, DO not cloes In about the victim.
They are hAphazard, scattered. To b
sure, B'Fdo was supposedly baflod BY
Rodion's resistance; and o-roseeSaminers
before now, In life, have appeared TO have
no logical plan. 10 DO questioning at
random. But the drama b not life.
There IL not the same interest felt 10
the fate Of a fictitious character ~ In che
fate OF a living man, however humble he
may be. A drama to maintain its intere$
must concentrate, must develop, must
move by accumulated force, Compare the
big act Of The Hypooritee,' where tho
preacher is driven step by step into 40
ever more hopeless position, 10 b released
only At the final moment, or Of 'Ms, Danss
Defence where the lawyer, by question
after question, slowly, rsleutISssly, insvi-
tably, backs his victim up q blind alley
against the dead wall Of z confession, With
the fourth act Of Mr.. Irying's play and the
difference will A. once he seen. That Mr..
Irving realized his problem iS evident from
Rodton'a final Il, = interrupted
Just In time by the false confession Of the
workman. But this 10 . trick, . mere
theatrical trick; and II comes At the very
end Of an act absolutely without develop
ment or suspense, too late 10 ave II,
But Mr.. Irving no LEES surely lodged
his ethical Issue, failed TO follow the
logical development Of the idea behind
his play.
i was my spider sayS the hero
Of one Of TurRtnieh'S novels. we Rus
SLAMS have no other lfs problem he goes
on. than the cultivation Of our personal
ity! $50 Without having received from
within any definite direction, In reality re-
specting nothing, believing firmly 10 moth
ing, we are free 10 make Of ourselves
whatsoever We will. On the other
hand, We are great psychologists. Oh, yea,
we are great psychologists! hut our
psychology ttrays on into pathology; our
psychology is an artful study Of the laws
Of . diseased condition and = diseased
development. with which healthy people
have no concern. But the chief thing IL,
We are not young-tn youth itself We are
not young''
Sad words, these; yet how true a descrip-
tion Of RodoN! He was his " spider,
caught 10 the meshss Of his wild, anarohis-
tic. humanitarian theory Of justihAblS
homicide. His broodinE, interpretive
psychology was but pathology too; and
surely be was never young; that thin, bag
gard face Of his, a face full Of fruitless
passions, the Scared battle-ground Of in
tellectual rebelions, which Mr.. Sothern
made manifest, never knew the Smile d
careless youth. But Why, Why was he
never young? How make him young
AGAIN. How freq him from the web his
own fate had spun2 How set him right
with the social orderl That was the in
tellectual problem OF the playa splendid
problem, worthy Of the highest powers,
And this IL how the author answered Il!
He told Rodion that murder revenges it.
self not on the conscience but the nervous
system. And he tried 10 tell US that the
pratting prayers Of an ignorant girl and
hor mummeries before an ikon are suf-
ioient TO solve the intellectual doubts Of .
mai who Il seeking with his own hand 10
redress terrible wrongs that seem 70 him
woven IN the texture Of the universe. In
the nam Of the Prophet. hgsl The best
play that WA ever written. 10 be sure. y
not an answer 10 any problem. For a play
deab with individual mon and ONE and
II l. only by the collection Of large num-
berv Of individual oaSss that anything like
q law, q solution Of q problem, can be ar
rived at. Yet II a play 10 70 be OF the
slightest value, sven a. o in . collection,
II must be made Of different stun than this.
Mr.. Irving b In the ridiculous position Of
the man who used TO answer the arguments
OF an evohtionist by quoting the Book Of
Genesis.
So We swing around through seriousness
seriously 10 consider the a~bsurdities Of our
opening paragraphs. For, horrible a. muir
der ia, greatly as II violates our civilized
instincts, there IL not the slightest doubt
that MIR. Irving meant HE audiences 10
sympathiSe with Rodior in the murder Of
GromOf; there 10 not the slightest doubt
that the audiences do SynpathiLe. are
perfectly satisfied 10 4 the old swine
killed. There are warning instincts in us
too, the mad hyena heart beating beneath
the boiled shirt bosom, the right Of the
individual rebeling against the might Of
society. Do We not still talk Of the I'M
written law'1 Rodion. 4 Russian, saw
human life held AZ anything but Saered by
the Government and the institutions about
him. When conventional religion quoted
to him the Decalogue, he replied that Moses
slew the Egyptian. Even his friends agreed
that old Gromof deserved 10 die; II was only
after they had seen the body, only under
the physical repugnance at q bloody corpse,
that the idea Of HE murder became horrible
70 them. That 10 a good deal like sAyinG,
Thou shalt not kill because II isn't pretty.
All our centuries Of struggle up from the
primeval Dor have accomplished but little
II that is the best answer We can give,
RodioA was at odds with society. And II
was only by the social argument that he
could be answered. Little Sonic lispsd,
a she had been taught TO do, that our
lives are given 10 Us by God, without the
slightest conception Of what she meant.
And though abe recoiled from RodioA
before he gave himself up, che wa per-
fectly ready 10 marry him after he'd served
hk time In slberia-n II that made any
diferenceI A far deeper and far more
searching answer must be given-ahd
Siven-to convince a Russian revo-
~lutionst. Perhaps he must needs be taken
up on an exceeding high mountain and
all the Kingdoms OF this earth, the
webs Of our destinies tnterlaoed, the con-
sequences Of our individual acts going far
damn inEn nnraelvAa- hnt nlao far out 10