The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-03-24
(By w. Il. BOST.)

he AIdfCn AullEeT oil Inc AltiliiiI
Review carried the announcement
that DR.. Archibald Henderson has is
sued his European D~ramatists," ana
. criticism of the work by a North |
taTolinian equally distinguished in
letters. Or. &. Alphonso Smith, makes
the Review a mighty welcome page.
Doctor Smiths review has both !
Kindness and causticity. admiration
for the notable work that this young |
University man has done, but com
ment upon his style that has a sting
or two. Confessing n faith that Doc
tor Henderson, like Victor Hugo, has
not said nearly all that is in him.
Doctor Smith wade into the Hender-
sonian style and animadVerts sharply
upon IL.
He devotes his criticism to the essay
un S~trindberg, but the critic of the
critic doubts that the essay has been
finely fused into the uthor mind.
Instead of saying, as DR.. Henderson
would say elsewhere" continues Doc
tor Smith. that Strindberg now be-
gan to hate women he says that he
began to be ohsessed with the ono
mania Of animadVersion against the
female sex And yet, but a few pages
OF, one meets q sentence as memoir
able in iis simplicity and originality
as this: Life with him was a form Of
excuse for art > & " This short SEN
stHct 'iSdllS ldI H1oT' ~ Ilt lldi u
know that Strindberg was 'antipodal
TO the reflective and anaemic molly
coddle,' or that his method was the
method of focal concentration, OF
maGnihcation of interest through in
tensiveness of treatment or that his
trilogy TO DAMASCUS blurs the Wis
ion with its microscopic hetrogeneity
Of spiritual films or thai he was
'obsessed with the chiInera of exag-
ScrateG eeotism. ne delusion of ref
erential ideas"
lnacIuracy and Contradiction.
Doctor Smith suggests inaccuTacy
OF quotation and contradiction Of
Characterization. He thinks the eS-
say Was carclessly written or careless
" read over. The citations from
Wordsworth, Browning n Shake
speare are strangely inaccurate" he
says. and quotes II author against
himself. 1--WE are told on page nine
teen that, il Strindbcrg became q pes
simist, his was II pessimism not CT
disillusionmcnt, but OF contemplation.
The point is an important one ii true
but in at least five other places DIR
Henderson afIirms or implies the di.
rect contrary" The reviewer quotes
the passages: Here. as elsewhere
Strindberg reveals himself the disil
iusioned idealist. . > > 1T is indubi
table that Strindberg finally reached
The stage Of disil~luSion,nent. " /
was the tragedy Of Strindberg's lif,
never to rise above the eN-diSilluSion
ment which came from early excess.
And yet another reference to ''Strind
berg's life of disillusion."
DEVELOPMENT I'm Style.
Though the review OF Doctor Sr3itl
complains Of the extravaganza OF Ian
Guage, the absence OF studied sim
plicity and economy" Of languag
That "writhes helplessly about it
thought" he finds abundant enter
tainment in contrast Of style as it ap
pears in Interpreters OF life Doc
tor Smith r%ejoices in Doctor Hende1
sons growing confidence in the car
rying power OF English when pitte
against the nGu of Europe" An
in "a column he gives the vholesal
elimination Of foreign phrase and tn
substitution Of the equivalent IInglisl
n conclusion Of Doctor Smith
that foreign phrase j. not to be stis
matted but that it must be a bette
iallier n a English if Doctor Her
derson employs ii. Upon that view
am going To rest my defense of Do
tor Henderson's style and assert a
able-bodied admiration OF it.
Any man who has read "Interpr,
tsrs OF Life" will find colossal speec
to be sure. 1t was that book IN:
inspired what l regard much the be
thing yet written about Doctor Hel
'AsVh - NNo SSAV eop oHlpP
review of the volume. In the cogel
and pretty speech Of the pretty won
an. she fancics Mr.. Henderson 20
jecting TO my Sesquipedalian verb
age This was q compelling crit
"ism, but not the only line that W
live. And ever Mrs. Ship forego
the best of tongues, he wor
ans, for "nolens volens."
Some Observation-Disclosures.
There ia sesquipedalian verbias
These be attractive rather than fo
bidding. Who will stop reading VIII
he learns that the closing half
the nineteenth Gentry exhibits no ms
velous and immutablo fixations in I
sphere Of consciousness" It's il
what everybody was thinking abe
II, but he couldn't get the idea
market. OF 1t was a peri