had never. K any real please Hes. It had ne rought up in Na England, or eve of Pilgrim stod nce. Miss Alt the absolutely s 4. Little Woma t. I remembere mates of mine i Filles du Dec ench version was zed). If childr oyalist and Cath no flaw in Miss life, I could not Fican child should ore closely. Het it is probably to eciation of Miss special documen said was simply delight in fairy-tales is not due sole epic instinct. One is interested in pr princesses, when one is eight, simpl they are princes and princesses. Of ro is perfectly sure. I have never know who did not prefer the goose-girl to cess in disguise, or who felt any real with the princess who was only a goose-girl. You do not have to exp Divine Right to any one under twel ants are an acquired taste; and socia illusion of age. Out of such axioms as these, I explanation of my friend's heterodo membered my own reaction, when ve on a story that centred in a maske which all the inhabitants of the king bidden. All the milkmaids went as co and all the court ladies went as milk mere rounding out of the Petit Tri sode. The moral was obvious; and being frightfully disturbed by my own certainty that, if I had been going to ball, I should, without hesitation, hav [183] same age when she discriminated against s Alcott. But then, I and my contempoes had made no such discrimination. As I it set me to thinking. Since then, I have Miss Alcott over, not once, but many s, and I think I understand. he astounding result of re-reading Miss tt at a mature age is a conviction that she ably gives a better impression of midury New England than any of the more rious reconstructions, either in fiction or in 7. The youth of her characters does not er her in this; for childhood, supremely, s life ready-made. Mr. Howells's range is r, and he is at once more serious and more ched. Technically, he and Miss Alcott can compared as little as Madame Bovary the Bibliothèque Rose. Yet, although testimonies often agree, his world does 'compose" as hers does. It may be his very sm—his wealth of differentiating detail, delity to the passing moment-that makes arly descriptions of New England so out ate, so unrecognizable. Miss Alcott is con N ian vil ac be br ra ou su N th th Pl do S Sm T Sp V b. р t b riminated ag nd my contemp crimination. As! ince then, I hav once, but many and. re-reading Mis Conviction that she pression of mi any of the more er in fiction or it racters does not hood, supremel Lowells's range is serious and more Miss Alcott cat Ladame Bovary Yet, although his world does may be his ver entiating detail. ent-that makes England so out ss Alcott is cor New England village. It is precisely iar experiences of life in that quin village that Miss Alcott gives us, wit accuracy, without arrière-pensée. An be remembered that, in spite of Dr. brave and appropriating definitions o racy, and the urbanity which the desce our great New Englanders would suade us their ancestors possessed, New Englanders were essentially villa that the very best thing to be said o that they wrought out village life to Platonic perfection of type. "Town" do to express the Boston, the Camb Salem, the Concord, of an earlier smacks too much of London-and The Puritans founded villages; and, speaking, the villages that they fou villages still. The village that Miss Al best was Concord; and if, for our pr pose, we find it convenient to call typical of New England, we shall cer be doing New England any injustice. As I say, what strikes one on first 1 re is an equally inexcusable amount of usable amount ng to remenic wells. But for rs and morals, h her masterpie Jo, Beth, Art about life in Ne e shall never le of the letters thorne. astounding-res as, for me, the leasant corrobor un d said about he some ways, under shall we say s family circle; but ly bad gramma Pa, as if he was des her little sister ammar we might freak; but should y (any little gi Amy is supposed t ary." Cheap literature is unsparingly Plato and Goethe are quoted quite day matters; and "a metaphysical s unconsciously got into" Jo's first The Rose in Bloom, Miss Alcott Swinburne, to be sure, but she does interest of morality; and elsewhere N other lines from the same poet cor course, we all remember that Essays helped on, largely, Mac's if, indeed, they did not do the wh And has there ever been an "abode ing"-to slip, for a moment, into style of Jo's Boys-like unto crowned by "Parnassus"? After al must remember how familiarly e madcaps, Ted and Josie, bandied names of Greek gods. The boys and scoff at the simple amusements of Mi young heroes and heroines are, alac much at home with classical mythol young people they despise. Yet, as bad grammar is everywhere mouths of the educators. [187] eve |