New-York tribune., 1916-02-29

ments os living. the case and beauty and
culture which they imply.
He has been accused OF snobbcry; IN
reality he was only most scnsitlvcly fas-
tidious. In course Of time he became 10
certain extent what England claimed
that he had bccomc-an English novelist
His interest shifted increasingly from the
international to the purely British life
to the British country house most of all.
To what extent the manncr-hls much-
discussed stylc-which he perfected with
such infinite patience initiated against the
popularitv his books deserved, and CON
t,nuc 10 deserve, on account of the sig
nifcancc Of their contents, IS ques'io"
that need not be answered here. Nor Is
this the place to dilate upon the successive
stacos bv which this manner was at
tanned. Perhaps he essayed the impos-
sible. II may we'll be that he sought, as
has been said, to wiring from language
more than it can yield in expressing the
converging multiplicity of simultaneous
conscious and subconsclous suggestions
that 90 to the making of thought. Ger
tain il is that in the end he fell victim
70 his own passion for perfection that his
last work bore unmistakablc evidence OF
the ciichc.
He was the perfect type of the man-of-
letters. a novelists' noveist-and a novel
lists critic. OF inspiration, of genius, there
was no trace in him; but he was man OF
stupendous talent. His books arc not for all
time: his own period only interested him,
even in his elaborate psychological prob
inqs. What the artist can learn of his art he
learned; and he added much to ITS technl-
cal resources. He attained the rich den
sitv of detail" which, as critic, he ad-
'r,ired. But. as was said Of him III these
columns long ago, "he lacked what cannot
be learned II is fact which cannot be
ignored. and which, indeed, 1t is well
TO recognize, once for all. in dealing with
his work. 1t is fine work, brilliant work,
and sometimes absorbingly interesting;
but to enjoy it you must make, at the out
set. a definite remuneration of those things
which YOU expect, as a matter of course,
in the great creative artist.
Adopting for the moment Mr. Howells's
liberal Interpretation Of the term mis-
torical fiction" which enables him to place
Jane Austen in the front rank Of his
torcal novelists, we may give to Henry
James the place of the foremost fictional
social historian Of his time, within the
limits of the social levels chosen by hir'
for treatment.
Within these limits he has given US sev-
eral masterpieces-"Thc Ambassadors
and "The Golden Bowl first among them
And with them rank several of his short
stories. even unto one Of the last of them
that amazing piece of virtuosity. The
Bench of Decolation.' He has left fol-
lowers whose own talent has preserved
them from becoming merely his imitators.
As one closes. one cannot help reflect
ing that his death, so shortly after his
British naturalization, may have robbed
US Of the most significant Of all his books:
For. after the storm and the stress and the
indignation that moved him to the step,
Henry James would undoubtedly have
found material Of infinite riches in his
own change of allegiance. That book would
have rounded out, with a rare complete
ness. his career as the foremost interna-
.;opa1 rovaIict ~ hia time