The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-05

his offspring, there are those who re.
member how prompt he was in appre
citation. II any disparaged them OF
their doings. there Is proof here how
promptly his scotch Irish" blood wa.
! up. a highly amusing example chron.
icled here Is a letter he wrote to jaime.
r. Fields concerning some forgotten
vilipendings of his namesakes maiden
efforts. 81 had no sooner left your
ssnctum yesterday than was afflicted
to remember how I had profaned it b,
my unmcasured talk about poor II
Please forget 1t utterly. don't know
how il is with better mon. but the par.
entail sentimcn, Is 50 fiendsh q thing
with me that IL any ono attempt TO STAY
my young especially in clandestine
way or out Of u pious regard &c. ~ to
the welfare OF the souls comprised in
the diocese of the Atlantic. can't help
devoting him, bag and baggage, to the
internal gods" With whatever other
sentiments the reader reads this pas
sage. 1t must be with the feeling that
the writer can write. Under the re-
strictions OF the present notice the
reader Will have to- take the reviewers
word for II that there are fifty other
passages from :hc same hand that are
just as gcJu.
But to recur 10 the superhcially en-
viable pecuniary state of the Janeses.
there Is one reflection that can hardly
fail to suggest itself to the judiclous
reader OF the book. Why should a
writer who wrote so well as the elder
James not have found his big public ?
His son admits, or proclaims. that his
writings brought him no "pence." Would
II not have been better, Il not for his
fame" which he does not seem to have
bothered himself much about, but for the
objects with which man takes
his pen in hand to acquaint the public
with his views, If he had had TO con-
slider his pence and write with refer
ence to them? May not mis- state Of
being at his ease correspond to the
state of Socrates. according to old
Henry James's black beast Carlyle. in
being terribly at ease in Zion? Most
men. including eminently the scions of
the British arlstocracy. OF whom less
fortunately placed aspirants to fame
envdously consider that they might do
anything" do nothing. or nothing but
the mischief which the good DIR. Watts
indicates as the proper product of idle
hands. Is not. In other words. the
commercial standard Of intellectual pro-
duction upon the whole good thing
for the intellectual product? Ought
not writer. as any other artist. to aim
at and consider the big market?
"Nummus ALT artes." as Charles Reade
used to be fond OF repeating. Would
it not have been better for the senior
James. and by consequence for US. II
he had been compelled TO consider more
the subject matter of his discoursings.
as he would assuredly have had to do
II his family had relied upon his writ
ings and not upon his patrlmony for
support? Nay. would II not have been
we'll for the Junior James II he also
had had to aim at the big market, and
consider II, not. this time. in the matter
but in the manner OF his dscoursinps?
In spite of Shakespeares remarks
about the laughter OF the un;hinl1ing
and the grief of the Judlcious. and how
the judgment of one ought to outweigh
a whole theatreful of others. It ia
certain that William would have
thought Hamlet" failure II it had not
drawn houses" to the Globe Theatre,
whatever else 1t might have done or left
undone. 1t would be hazardous to say
that the surviving and Junior James
has any higher critical acceptance than
If he had aimed at and secured a wider
popular acceptance. Il was in the
middle sos. If one may make so bold.
that an experienced publisher. recon-
mending that he should be invoked for
A certain commission. gave among his
reasons: Hes not n very high priced
man" Would not the present volume