Evening star., 1938-03-27

Most Recent Work of Distinguished Reast Paraed
Peatte Writes About What
O me in "Prarie eGrove"
By Mary.Carter Roberts.

By Mary.Carfer Roberts.
THE SUMMING UP. BY w. Somerset
Vaughan. New York: Doubleday,
Doran q Co.
TN THIS book Somerset Maugham
gives his readers his estimate of
what is to be found in the bottom
Of the sieve after a lifetime of
sitting. The work is not. as he tells us,
an autobiography or memoir. but an
attempt ito sort out my thoughts on
the subjects that have chiefly inter-
ested me during the course OF my life"
And he continues. saying that he has
often planned to write such volume
but has put the doing of it of, "s /.
now can afford to put it OF no longer.
In youth the years stretch before one
so long that it is hard to realize that
they will ever pass, and even in middle
age, with the ordinary expectation of
life IN these days, 1t is easy to find
excuses for delaying what one would
like to do but does not want to; but at
last time comes when death must be
considered. Here and there ones con-
temporaries drop OF. We know that
all men are mortal (Socrates was a
man: therefore-and so forth, but it
remains for us little more than a
logical premiss till we are forced to
recognize that in the ordinary course
OF things our end can no longer be
remote. An occasional glance at the
obituary column of the Times has
suggested to me that the sixties are
very unhealthy; I have long thought
that 1t would exasperate me to die be-
fore I had written this book and so it
seemed to me that I had better set
about 1t at once. When have finished
1t. can face the future with serenity.
for I shall have rounded off my life's
work"
This is an uncompromising intro
duction, certainly. But one would
hardly expect less than sober realism
from this writer And so a reader who
has admired Somerset Maugham's
mind, who has found pleasure in the
grave vitality Of his thought, may read
here his avowedly final evaluation of
what life has held for him that seemed
to him worth meditation. To such
reader there will be little surprise in
the fact the volume is neither high
reaching nor deep-delving Vaughan
has been always level thinker. He
hews to the line now with his custo-
mary keenness.
Taking up his various preoccupa-
tions in the order in which they came
to him, he describes the evolution of
his thought in relation to each one
in relation to literature. to ethics, to
religion, to culture, to art to mans
possible place in the universe In every
case he tells us that though he has at
times fancied extremes. he has even
tually come to the middle way as the
course dictated by reason AS writer,
he says, for example, he once admired
the prose of the gorgeous school-of Sir
Thomas Browne. of the King James
version of the Bible, of Jeremy Taylor,
and wrote his first book under these
influences.
He comes to the conclusion, however
that good prose merely combines
"lucidity, simplicity and euphony," and
those qualities in the order Of impor-
tance in which they are listed. No
ornaments are needed, he has de-
cided, and no obscuring decorations.
Let the meaning stand forth plainly.
and do not above all delude yourself
about what the meaning is.
His life has been a search for mean
ttec LIZ,
here. Reared from early childhood in
the narrow atmosphere of provincial
wears home, be went out into the
world with burden of conventional
beliefs which needs must be lost, COM
forting though some of them were
With their successive distinctions, he
turned to the finding of what truth he
could put in their places. With the
violence of youth" as he puts it once,
he often accepted the ruthless, the ex-
trenne or arrogant form of reasoning.
Then, in time, he came to reject his
substitute, putting in its place his
seemingly all-embracing doctrine of
severe realism. This doctrine he ap-
plies even to the realm of abstract
thought, using it as far as it will go
and after that admitting ignorance
and refusing all theories
As he puts it, in stating his conclu-
sion as to the final worth of mortal
life, he believes that "the egoism of
man makes him unwilling to accept
the meaninglessness of life and when
he has unhappily found himself no
longer able to believe in a higher
power whose ends he could hatter him.
self he subserved he has sought to give |
it significance by constructing certain
values beyond those that seem to fur
ther his immediate welfare. The wis
dom OF the ages has chosen three of |
these as most worthy. To aim at them
for their own sake has seemed to give
LIE some kind OF sense. Though it can
hardly be doubted that they too have
biologic utility, they have specifically
an appearance of disinterestedness
which gives man the illusion that
through them he escapes from human
bondage. Their nobility Strengthens
his Wavering sense Of his spiritual sig
niflcance and, whatever the result. the
pursuit of them appears to justify
his efforts. Gases in the vast desert
OF existence, since he knows no other
end OF his journey, man persuades
himself that they at all events are
worth reaching and that there he will
hnd rest and the answer to his CUES
ton. These three values are Truth,
Beauty and Goodness"
Then, in series Of brief ESSAYS.
Somerset Vaughan demonstrates that
he considers truth and beauty with
out intrinsic value" and the value of
goodness highly qualified. He shows
himself to be fundamentally a re-
ducer to elements, an analyst who will
stop short of nothing but origins, and
30, having shaken his sieve to what he
names as the end of the shaking, he
has to offer chiefly a description of
how it has been that so much
has passed through and SO little re-
mained for permanent nourishment.
Yet there is no drama in his pessirnisrn