New-York tribune., 1910-09-03


You can always trust native You can
treat him as your friend and equal 50 foiis
as the inequality IS there and OBVIOUS ~ =;
him | mean, so long as IN every ihia5
generosity in courage and in 'ohor-he,
allies that YOU arc his superior. ~ :"
strange country no one is an exception.
ono coward. one thief, one drunkatu -
quite enough 10 cast the biachcSt SiuI ki,o,
tte whole nation in The eyes OF another
raCc As sincerely as he believed yeSter-
dsv that we We're ell heroes as silceIes err,
Nehal Singh believes TO-DAY ti>t '
isn't an honest man among us
OF course, this bit of practlcai tSS
rhologv is of wider Application thah 'le
one made In the book. So far as '"e
,,,fa+;,onoahle East is concerned. Vt must
ho t,kan on the authors authority. His
know ledge Of the natives WIN "ho''
he deals VIC must assume; at pest
we can but test 1t and his pictures of
Anelo-Irdisn life by the measure OF
the understanding which we have ac-
ouired at second hand from much read
irg. He deals, and properly, with the
tvu aspects of the natives in the mass
with which alone experience has maze
the rulers really familiar-that OF slle'i''
patient enigmatic submission. ana lhaI
os flaming fanatic revolt, both depend
ent upon the nod of a central 1nf1uehce
of some hereditary ruler or some re
moter controlling force, far more I1HS-
terious and unaccountable. Mr.. Nyil'c
breaches the Square DEAL for the
native, a positive, not % negative, one;
justice, not mere abstinence from IN
Justice. and that equality which a sub
iect race understands and can accept.
The story, for this is after all, a
novel and not Il tract, is ingen1ousiy
constructed as to plot. 1t has its weak
spots, chief among them its secret
limited at in the beginning, but care
fully kept until the last. which makes
possible a satisfactory ending-but weak
ems the argument amazingly. through
the tale runs the sinister memory OF
the Mutiny, of many minor mutlmes,
over it hover the shadows, never spoken
of in India except in whispers, of the
English women who disappear in such
davs of horror. never to be heard Of
again in life or death, their fate an un-
solved mystery. The siege is handled
with dramatic skill. The Native Born
is worth reading as story, apart from
its unmistakab BILE purpose as a warming
The return to the broader canvas. the
| leisurely, discursive manner of the We
torian novelists. increasing evidence of
which is seen in American as well as in
English fiction. is still on its trial. 1t
may succeed; more likely it will prove
not suited to present day literary tastes
! engendered by radically changed condl-
| tions of life. or to those conditions them
selves. At best such measure of success
as it may again attain will be q triumph
o. the individual writer, not of the
method itself. the exception that only
proves the contrary rule. as in the case
of Mr. De Morgan, and the question OF
! even his enduring popularity still lies on
the knees Of the gods.
Miss Elizabeth Godfrey has spanned
her canvas broad and filed it with full
! length pictures of secondary characters
whom a later theory of the art would
reduce to telling outline and smaller
proportions. She begins the story of
her Englishman Of genius, as the title
| of "The Cradle of a Poet suggests, at
his birth There is consistent method in
| her dwelling upon the formative in
fuences of his childhood and youth, but
one doubts at times if such discursiYe-
ness is worth while. We are taken too
far afield, and the connection between
the main subject. which is the growth of
the poet. and all this detail of family,
social standing and character and per-
sonal peculiaritics of others, is not al
| ways clear.
However. the talent grows, first at
school then ut oxford, and the forma-
tive influences grow wider and larger
and Of decidedly greater significance
| First love is ono Of them-thc first flight
50 immatcral to the average man, 50
important in its results to the cxcep-
tional mind and soul Social problems
are another. and the poetic reaction
| from the Grass materialism of the age "a
q mystic idealism is the greatest of them
all Then the hard. practical problems
of life confront the dreamer. The cradle
calls him. the dWindlinG patrimony-a d
stone quarry - demands his young
strength to take from his fathers aging
hands the burden of its management
But through it ali the Muse keeps call
ing for her due. and the poet responds
with offerings al her feet, with lyric and
ballad with the poetic drama of whose
triumphant return to its own some OF us
still confidently dream The author Is
quite up to date in this part OF her mar
ratiye and takes time to draw still an
other elaborate minor picture-that Of a
modern young girl of a certain well
known type-"unleavened bread with a
superficial education, an amazing conf
dencc in it's own spontaneous omnl-
science in matters of art and knowledge
and q dceP-rootcd CONJUNCTION Of the
ignorance of all the rest of US. In the
end the poet finds his destiny. his love
but whether she Will he an inspiration
TO him. and bring out the noblcSt and
best that is in him, is d question which
the author does not answer.
The book is too long. overeiaborate IN
detail that is not OF vital import; II in
sists too much upon the level of the
mass. and fails to set the poet suffi-
ciently far above it, though it certainly
succeeds in setting him apart We are
| assured of the quality of his talent. but
| we see only a reflection of his light -
never the divine fire itself, held high IL
his hand. leaping and flaming above his