THE CRITIC AND THE SHORT STORY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 12

THE CRITIC AND THE SHORT STORY.

"Two facts about -the short story utq very significantit is probably the oldest literary form, and it was the_latest in. point of time to receive exact definition of its purpose and' scope and full unfolding of its artistic and dramatic resources." writes Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie, in the "Outlook." ,"The. first fact means that the short story is a-.vital and not an artificial form of literature, and fits itsolf easily and i aJmost instinctively to oertain impulses and interests of men; the second fact—the fact that the short story had to ,wait for tho insight and skill of men of tho genius of Poo, Hawthorne,. Stevenson, Kipling, and Manpaa-

sant—means that as a ..literary form the short story ranks with the highest and most exacting forms of art. Attraction of tho Short Story. "It is not easy to explain the attraction of the short story for men of genius in the last generation. That it. was vitally related to some spiritual condition, to 6onie change of attitude of tho human spirit, is beyond question; for under the apparont confusion on tho surfaco of life iuexorablo law plays through everything, aiid everything that appears has its adequate cause. "In no field has the extension of knowledge been more notable and influential than in that of human motives, conditions, and characters. To tlie broad simplicity of the older portraiture has. succeeded a complexity of. subject and method as bewildering as the variety and diversity of the subjects presented. Formerly the artist, like the philosopher, studied man and was content with a few great types; to-day lie studies men and gives ua an immense variety of closely studied individuals. "Formerly good and evil woro indicated by contrasting bands of black and white; today they.separate from or approach one another through innumerable • gradations of grey. The study of tho forms and conditions of life—social, political, economic—has brought to light an almost impenetrable network of circumstances, inheritances; individual traits, forces, and idiosyncrasies, and an almost unfathomable depth of instinct, historic relationship, passional energy, and influence. The world ''of human character and exporionce has taken on such proportions, both extensive and intensive', and the order of existence is so complex and reveals such subtle and sensitive connections at cvpry point, that many penetrating minds are absorbed in tho study of a little section of the vast area spread before them, and concontrate on an incident, a character, a dramatic moment, tho genius of insight and of expression that would- once have gone into tho making of a long comprehensive novel. Instead of large canvases presenting wide landscapes painted with a free hand, we havo a great number of cabinet pictures executed with exquisite fidelity of detail and skill.

Long Novela and Short Stories. ' "This is not saying that long novels of high quality have not appeared' during the lifetime of the past generation, or that the creative energy which has gone into the more elaborate, fiction is ebbing; it is only saying that a radical chango of fundamental intellectual and spiritual conditions has focussod on dramatic or significant points the interest which once covored a wide field, ajjd that the flowering and maturity of an undeveloped literary form has been, the result. "And to this statement of a general condition the fact that concentration, compression, and tho necessity for perfect proportion and rolation of parts in so delicate a structure as the short story have both compelled arid stimulated the most thorough study of resources and tho most effective handling of materials, and we havo secured, it may be, a little more light on the growth of tho art of writing the short story and of interest in reading it."