Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1883 — Hawthorne’s Genius. [ARTICLE]

Hawthorne’s Genius.

EitdH feb arSc tof i« Hawthorne’s small litit JaTa finished stridV; fit dnc’ti Iqtifil in its surroundings and general m psychological elemenfcs, It is a study of nun in his special environment—more scientific than the science of to* day, because it does what science fails to do; it tries to settle Che spiritual element in its true place as a factor ill man’s life. Others have surpassed Hawthore in the management of external conduct, Of dhdfgue, of home life, of local scenery; bm, fiOiig Save reached she depth to which! he penetrated in thti study of the human heart as' the creature of his own creation., In. every higher qualification of the Aftist, liti easily excels. His style is masterly in ease, grace, clearness —the winning alt sorbing, entrancing quality. His skill isl hinting in ideal and spiritual eletuentfi iti thti perfect in our day. HiS mastery of .light, find shade—the potiei tit deepening glotiin by Sftnfiriinti and intensifying sunshine by means of darkness—is of the finest order, at once the gift of original preeeptiq’n and the result of most assiduouß practice. Erobably few writers ever made so many successes that were failures, or so many failures that were successes; that is, few ever did so much that was tti others artistically perfect in order that they might do something artistically perfect to themselves. Mr. James marvels at the existence of the “Note Books;” yet their publication hfis thrown a flood of light ntit only uptin the’ workings tis Hawthorne’s mind but on the source,-! tis Ids artistic effects. Thtiy supplement with a sunny eternal quality thei gloom of his psychology. They show us in Jiis own nature a capacity fo* beauty and sweetness, where ldi own generation Saw only it capacity for morbid analysis; that is, they furriish tha biography of the sympathetic side of Ibis mind, while the novels represent What was equally real to his emotional nature. No doubt, while his actual life 1 was simple and pure-minded, capable of absorbing beauty and interest, he had; in imagination, lived through the tortures of the damned. "tVe had nevef reached such insight, or such grace of style, before Hawthorne; and we havti never reached it since.— The Century;