New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-13
LITERARY CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
The Conclusion of Mr.. Moore's Trilogy: Chapters
from an Artists Autobiography
Figure of the Restoration.

ton Of an autobiography, ana therc "
every reason for taking it as an aiiair
Of experience; but it is not by any
means to be checked as ono checks an
ordinary confession. IT is the mirror
OF a mind rather than the record OF
life. and the last thing to make my
serious impression on us is the author
Enthusiastically sincere and at times even
plaintive desire TO persuade us thaI re
is irving 10 set forth the truth. az
course. he is trying to do just tha.'
but again we must remark mat tue
Memoirs Of My Dead life are theTe
to indicate the kind OF truth al WhlCh
Mr.. Moore is driving. 1t is the truth
of the creative artist, who, If he sees
things as they are, sees them also rs
he would have them. II is incrcdlp'c'
fatty incredible, that Mr.. Moore's lrlsh
years should have been as interesting
and as fruitful of good copy as they
are made out to be in Hail ana rare
we'll" They are rich in entertainment
for us, because he has so brilliantly
dramatized them, and this, we hasten
10 add. without the smallest intention
10 deceive. No, we cannot doubt MT.
Moore's God faith. The author OF
Evelyn Inness" has lived, as an artist
{ too close TO the very roots of the MAJ
ter for us even momentarily to suspect
! him OF being cheaply insincere on any
occasion. 1t is simply that we have 10
TO reckon with his damon, with the
genius in him that will not let him
write bald prose, and courteously must
discount him here and there.
He was ideally constituted to saunter
into the company of the Young Irish
men. with his matured habit Of mind,
his literary authority, his aesthetic cos
mopolitanism and his delicate, If not
unerring. critical instinct. From the
comfortable plane of his assured celeb
/ rity he gould look with the kindllest
sympathy upon the efforts being made
by his juniors TO set the Liffey afiame.
/ He had had his years in Bohemia ana
so could settle quite legitimately in
commodious house with pleasant
garden, and play the elderly oracle
against the background formed by his
/ collection Of Manets and other I'm
/ pressionist pictures. Only he wouldn
play the oracle, for he would not he too
elderly. He carried himself instead,
we gather, with a charming modesty.
| Above all, he was patient, a good lis
tener as we'll as a good talker, and
though it Is to be inferred that he
could be now and then Internally ex-
asperating, he must, on the whole, have
brought much stimulus and pleasure to
the poets. playwrights, journalists and
so on among whom he sat mentally
taking notes. His wit did them no
harm, nor, by the way, does it lessen
the value OF his impressions A merely
humorous body would have stayed for
a week or two in that portentous gal
lery and would then have fed Shrek
ing, to chuckle forever after over the
quaint pathos of clever medocrity,
for an authentic inspiration. Whether
Mr.. Moore saw completely through the
transactions going on about him we do
not quite know. There are times when
the satirist in him gets the upper hand,
and then we think that we are draw
ing near to just summing up of the
whole fantastic business. Is it a lack
Of courage that accounts for his indie
terminate conclusions? Is It that he
is, after all, too much Of an Irishman
himself to see the damning truth? Or
is it that on this point he means, for
once, to be really tactful, leaving us
TO read between the lines? Perhaps he
did not intend. anyway, TO draw up q
judgmatic report. When all is said the
question does not greatly matter. One
does not need TO take the Young Irish
men seriously in order to enjoy what
Mr.. Moore has to say about them.
We enjoy 1t because this rare COM
mentator, who. II we are to believe
him, lives by his senses, lives also by
the things Of the mind. and is always
enriching his memories by an amusing
play Of ideas. At the back of his head
is Il certain sense of perspective COM
polling him 10 take large views His
comrades did their thinking with the
aid OF the emotions. He did his with
the aid of the imagination, and while
that may have somewhat speciously in
/ nuenced his impulse 10 dramatic his
subject, it unquestionably has done
much TO make this book better worth
while. Some of his friends, reading
! the conversations he has SO blandly
jotted down. must grow as they rea.,
more and more hopping" We won
der If they are not also considerably
astonished, striving in vain to recall
/ how they could ever have helped to
develop such capital dialogue. Or are
/ those Young Irishmen, who write in
such middling fashion, all prodigiously
good takers? Once more we reflect
/ that the distinction, If there is one, is
of no great consequence. The main
| point is that we are soothingly di-
Yerted. Whether we encounter Mr..
Moore and his friends deep in argu-
ment. or are alone with him, sunk in