The New York herald., 1922-04-09
N HR. EDEN. PHILLPoTTs is a
W writer of such broad and

utcp resource tnaL sOine-
{ body said he was like. the ocean,
quite exhaustless in his quantity and
returning with a new book just as
regularly as the tides which wait
for no man. 1t is interesting to note
another detail of his resemblance TO
the mysterious ocean, out of which,
as Mr.. Kipling has remarked. "al-
most anything may come The
fact that Mr.. Phillpotts has his own
special and different currents which
sometimes appear quite unexpectedly
is not always borne in mind
Every now and then during the
past decade he has varied his work
by changing his backgrounds from
rural England to classical or i'm
aginary scenes. The immutabiiity
of human nature is we'll emphasized
in these tales, usually siignter in
construction than the solid fabric
of human life, which he draws with
Hardy-like faithfulness and discern
nent. Indeed, he scarcely troubles
himself to create personalities of an
earlier age; such intensive effect of
satire as he seeks in these comedies
he attains simply by the whimsical
expedient of setting modern figures
among the fast vanishing gods of
Thessaly.
A year or two ago Mr.. Phillpotts,
after turning out two or three fine,
thoughtful and extremely workman
like stories, as if absentmindedly
and all within a few months, pub
lished a pseudo classical tale called
'Evander," in which q deeper saline
than usual infused the current of his
irony; it was a distinctly different
stream from that deep, rolling sea
of reflection upon humanity as the
Lord made it which constitutes his
regular reappearances. In this ex-
tremely salty story he ranged the
few figures in his study of one of
the modern aspects of feminism
against an Arcadian background,
with an effect so vivid and amusing
that his book was roundly abused by
those who saw nothing absurd in
any eccentricity which lovely woman
might find it her whim to follow. In
that sparkling tale the daughter of
a washerwoman, happily married to
a woodcutter who worshiped Pan,
felt moved to allow her higher ma
ture opportunity by eloping with the
son of fisherman, the son being
disciple of Apollo and much given to
lectures. long words and vague con-
versations touching the higher life.
What happened when she discov-
cred that Evander, the lecturer upon
higher culture, had less of the hu-
man qualities which she found her
self to require than she had taken
for granted, and was not that kind
of man" made gladsome :oading
for contemporary persons who do not
prefer ethical lectures to detective
stories. say, as daily food.
In his most recent adventure in
this field, called "Pan and the
Twins" (Macmillan), Mr.. Phillpotts
has once more pitched his pup
pet theater amid classical scenes, or
at least in the Roman Campagna
during the early years of the Chris
stian era. Arcadius. a fifteen-year-
old herd boy who has been beaten
and sent adrift by his master. is
worshiper of the great god Pan. and
TO him Pan appears and tells him of
his parentage, a subject wholly ur-
known to the lad. Pan informed
him that his father was a Roman
patrician, Marcus Pomponius. but
his mother, Aurelia, was a daughter
of the people, and thus not suit
able wife for him. She died in CIV
ing birth to Arcadius and a twin
brother. Aurelia's mother, who hated
Marcus, naturally saw TO it that he
never saw his children. Arcadius
was sold to a plebeian and the other
to a patrician. Pan endowed Area
dius with the gift of understanding
the sneech of all things of the hoof