New-York tribune., 1920-01-24
A Psychic Novel
Spirits Galore in
'sMichael Forth"

MICHAEL FORTH. BY Mary Johnston.
Harper & Bros, New York
michael Forth" novel dealing
with supersouls and alter-egos, is a
romantic presentation of the psychic
Interpretation of history. The South
curing the reconstruction period is a
background with many possibilities.
Mary Johnston, however, is interested
in the soul Of the South rather than
its economic development. She per-
ceives nothing, from a glorious sunset
to a grimy factory, without immedi-
ately identifying it with the life force.
Most of this soul-shooting game is due
to the joint spiritualistic activities Of
Michael and Miriam Forth, adherents
OF every conceivable transcendental
philosophy These affinties not only
defy the properties of time and space,
but, unabashed, they enter into the
souls of their fellow beings. Every
perception or thought of the psychic
pair smacks of the universe. The
sound of q strange song is apt to wait
them to far-oF land 1000 years ago in
time, or the prophecy of some strange
phenomenon may project them CEN
turies into the future. They never eX-
perience anything as petty as a private
scene they spend most of the time in
embracing the cosmos, and when finally
the human element asserts itself and
produces a kiss it is as if a magnetic
current had drawn two glaciers into
momentary contact.
The characters in the book are
merely personihcations OF ideas. A
certain charm does hover over the
sentimental figure of Aunt Sarah. The
author leads US gently from our
scientific suspicious that she is merely
woman with fixed idea, strong
enough to withdraw her interest from
the world about her. Miss Johnston
insists on treating her with the ten
derness due to q romantic lady who
has lost her one true love. 1t is she
who initiates Michael into the mys-
terious joys of an inner life. The other
of contributing to the development
of the hero and the heroine. Michael
and Miriam are spiritual socialists
Far be it from them to lay exclusive
claim to their own souls. On the
other hand, they are continually sub
conscious of the inoculaton of some
alien personality. Michael is hardly
chilled with the scientific spirit of his
chum, Gamaliel, before he feels the
sultry, erctic temperament Of Doro-
thea stealing into his very marrow
He enters the mystic dream world of
Aunt Sarah only to be chased out by
the more alert, practical mind Of his
old school teacher, Nine. Black. In
the end he is such melting pot OF
personalities that it is hard to dis
tinguish the essential Michael
The book often reads like transla-
ton from the foreign. One typical
passage is: eve, too, with all our
kind, were householders. We, too, re-
capitulated, drew out the essences.
learned to manage little better and
a little better. yet daily living Per
laps the author thinks so unusual a
subject entitled her to a kind of liter
ary license, the privilege of chopping
off sentences, repeating words ad in
hnitum, and apparently making no
effort to be clear. The sentences are
jerky to the point of monotony and
awkwardness. The diction shows a
poverty of vocabulary and no real
feeling for words. In fact, the entire
book reads as il the author were ex-
tremely weary of this world or possibly
with us from another
" r