The modern traveller, on the other hand,
superseded by the guide-book, travels in himself, and records for us the
scenery of his own mind as it is affected by change of sky and the
various weather of temperament.
Mr. James, in his sketches, frankly acknowledges his preference of the
Old World. Life--which here seems all drab to him, without due lights
and shades of social contrast, without that indefinable suggestion of
immemorial antiquity which has so large a share in picturesque
impression--is there a dome of many-colored glass irradiating both
senses and imagination. We shall not blame him too gravely for this, as
if an American had not as good a right as any ancient of them all to
say, _Ubi libertas, ibi patria_. It is no real paradox to affirm that a
man's love of his country may often be gauged by his disgust at it. But
we think it might fairly be argued against him that the very absence of
that distracting complexity of associations might help to produce that
solitude which is the main feeder of imagination. Certainly, Hawthorne,
with whom no modern European can be matched for the subtlety and power
of this marvellous quality, is a strong case on the American side of the
question.
Mr. James's tales, if without any obvious moral, are sure to have a
clearly defined artistic purpose. They are careful studies of character
thrown into dramatic action, and the undercurrent of motive is, as it
should be, not in the circumstances but in the characters themselves.
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