The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31

firmly implanted are the instinct for self prcserva
ton and the instinct to perpetuate the race. The
social instinct, much younger than either, is yet
thousands upon thousands of years old and quite
as ineradicable
Because it violates the self-preservatve instinct
story of suicide can have wide human audience.
unless, in the words of DICK at the close
of MAsEFIELD's Lost Endeavour, we are filed
with the feeling that "life goes on The
act of destruction must be- however blndly, an
act Of immolation on the altar of the race.
Such is the feeling we get In reading JACK
LONDON s largely photographed Martin Eden;
and in much more striking instance, the terrible
act that closed the life Of the heroine in ToIsToYs
Anna KGrenind falls well before the end of the
book. In Afna Kdrenind, as in War and Peace, the
Russian novelist conveys to every reader an in
vincble conviction of the unbreakable continuity Of
the life of the race: The lest words Of Anna Ka-
renina are not those which describe Annals death
under the wheels, but the infinitely hopeful
words of LEVIN:
81 shall continue to be vexed with IVAN, the
coachman, and get into useless discussions, and
express my thoughts blunderingly. l shall always
be blaming my wife for what annoys me, and re-
peliting at shall always feel certain barrier
between the Holy of HOLES of my Utmost soul, and
the souls of others, my wifes. shall continue
to pray without being able to explain to myself
why. But my whole life, every moment of my life,
Independently of whatever may happen to me, will
be- not meaningless as before but full of the deep
meaning which shall have the power to impress
upon it. "
1t is because they appeal so strongly and simply
and directly to our instructive desires that the
stories of JACK LONDON are so POPULAR it is their
perfect appeal to social instinct that makes the
tales of 0. HENRY sell thousands of copies month
after month. Not even DICKENS transcribed O.
HENRY in the perfection of this appeal; and o.
HENRY set the right value on DICKENS, as at least
one of his stories shows
Civilization and education refine man s instinc-
tive desires, modify the paths they take but do not
weaken them perceptibly from generation to gen
Grafton except in few individual cases. Read the
second chapter of HAROLD BELL. WEIGHTS The
Shepherd of the HILLS and observe the tremendous
call to the instinct of perpetuation, prefaced
by character comment on the careless breeding
Of man contrasted with mans careful breeding
of animals. And if you think the appeal is crude
be very sure of this: The crudity is in yourself in
the instinct that you are not accustomed to have
set vibrating with such healthy vigor.
All this deals with broadest fundamentals But
they are what the publisher, Judging his manu-
script must fathom They are deeper down than
the sales manager need go, or the book seller
deeper than the critic need ordinarily descend in
his examination into the book s qualities
Ordinarily it will be enough for the purpose to
analyze story along the lines Of human instinct
as it has been modified by society and our sur
roundings and conventionalized by habit. The pub
fishers of ELEANOR 81. PORTER s novel, oh, Money!
Aoaeyi were not only wholly correct but quite
sufficiently acute in their six reasons for predicting
on the character of story alone--a big sale.
THE BEST OF THEIR KIND.