Such a change might naturally be expected to result from the slow but certain growth of culture and knowledge; but it has, of course, been accelerated by America's entry into the war. Now the war has not exercised the great moral effects in America with which we in Great Britain are familiar. The country was not in it long enough. The sacrifices were by comparison slight. Australia, for instance, with only five million inhabitants, lost more men in killed than the whole of the United States. Only in Princetonwhere the fine eagerness to engage was matched by a lamentable loss of life-was I conscious of the war as exercising a continuing influence over the genius of the place. But the war has at any rate stirred up an interest in general politics which did not previously exist. The young men in the universities are curious about Europe. Moreover, they have conceived a respect for Great Britain. The feeling toward my country is unquestionably more friendly than it was fifteen years ago. This I attribute mainly to our recent confraternity in arms and also in part to the Irish settlement and the funding of the war debt.

Nevertheless, it is clear that America does not propose at present to enter the League of Nations. You are a very prosperous and therefore a very conservative

weak-all these reasons will fall away and
be replaced by reasons equally cogent on
the other side. At present, however, the
League is so unpopular that even Mr.
Davis was afraid to blazon it on his banner.
He undertook to refer it to a plebiscite.
This anti-League feeling must not, how-
ever, be construed as indicating a simple
return to the old spirit of isolation. The
war has generated a great and unmistak-
able interest in world affairs among the
leaders of American intelligence. Noth-
thing impressed me more than the eager-
ness with which I was interrogated by my
friends and acquaintances in the Eastern
States with respect to the course of Euro-
pean policy and more particularly of Brit-
ish party struggles. Fifteen years ago
there was far less interest and far less
knowledge. Now there is not only inter-
est and knowledge but a desire to make
America's weight felt in the balances of
world policy, provided only that this
should not be done through the instru-
mentality of the League. Disarmament
conferences by all means, so long as they
are summoned by the President of the
United States and not by the Council of
the League, and sit at Washington, not at
Geneva. Americans in the League Sec-
retariat, in the League Commissions, by
all means, so long as they are not official
representatives of the government but
act in a private capacity. Let war be
outlawed, so long as the enforcement of
the decree of outlawry be not intrusted to
the League of Nations, which has been
constructed for the purpose. The good
Republican, in fact, is anxious to do his
duty to the world, but does not want to
be shown the way by Mr. Wilson.

I do not deny that there is an influen-
tial body of men standing quite apart
from the professional politicians who de-
plore America's abstention from the
League, and are anxious that she should
take up her membership. These are the
university intellectuals. In the American
seats of learning men are apt to view the
situation very much as it is regarded in
my own country. They say in effect:
"The League is by no means perfect, but
it is doing good work for peace and con-
ciliation and the promotion of humane
causes. Moreover, it is the only perma-
nent instrument constructed to this end.
Therefore it ought to be supported."

These views, it is true, are he
by a comparatively narrow
impression, however, is that
eminence of the men who
opinions will by degrees secu
larger audience.

The political enfranchisem
is so recent that it is impos
cast its future consequences
life. It may, however, be n
was the first presidential ele
families were divided in
giance. Not that the wom
vote one ticket rather than
that they were disposed to v
to their inclinations and
some cases differed from tho
members of the family.
with which I am acquaint
voted for Mr. Coolidge, t
Mr. Davis, and the daught
Follette. It may be added
standing these variances
If the American women
mony and good humor pre
up the League of Nations
tively woman's cause, the
dant evidence of a growi
public welfare. Fifteen ye
litical self-consciousness of
woman was a young, ra
plant. Now it is robust
evident. Women's confer
clubs, women's leagues, w
zations for other than pu
poses are greatly multiplie

How far feminine influe
procuring the passage of
Amendment I cannot say
contend that prohibition h
in America are justified in
woman's vote as a factor 1
in favor of its continuand
say, no change which
America in recent years i
ally and ardently discusse
ing piece of social legisla
it is vehemently denounce
the Constitution, as an i
ference with individual lib
lific parent of lawlessnes
others it is defended as a
I am disposed to think
cessful remedy for a deep-
is not yet in a position to
estimate of the results fo
of this remarkable and a

t is true, are held at present atively narrow circle. My owever, is that the personal the men who hold Leage by degrees secure for them a

ce.

al enfranchisement of women hat it is impossible to fors consequences for American however, be noted that this presidential election in which e divided in political alle that the women tended to Let rather than another, but e disposed to vote according inations and that these in ffered from those of the male the family. In one home I am acquainted the father r. Coolidge, the mother it and the daughter for Mr. La may be added that notwith ese variances complete har pod humor prevailed. erican women have not taken gue of Nations as a distin n's cause, they show abu ce of a growing concern re. Fifteen years ago the p onsciousness of the America

is good for trade. As yet we have no figures which enable us to reach a conclusion. If, however, the American public becomes convinced that the new law has added to the industrial output of the country by abolishing drunkenness among the workers, then I cannot imagine that the decision will be reversed by reason of the fact, deplorable as it may be, that the rich can, by taking a little trouble, supply themselves with alcoholic refreshment at a high price. It is by its dollar-earning power that prohibition will eventually be judged. At present there is some reason to think that it may be good for business and calculated to strengthen America's competing power in the markets of the world. So long as this opinion prevails among hard-shelled "economic men," the temperance idealists have auxiliaries powerful enough to enable them to maintain the position. The experiment, however, is far too new to enable us to pronounce with confidence as to its effects upon industry.

ment. That it has been productive of
serious evils is incontestable. The law is
very widely evaded and more particularly
by that class of society to whom the state
most naturally looks for an example in
the strict maintenance of law. It is said,
and the statement is not seriously chal-
lenged, that anybody can get a drink who
knows how, provided, however, that he is
careless of price and quality. In the mar-
itime cities the Americans are resisting the
revenue laws now, just as they fought
against them in the decades which pre-
ceded the Revolution. Only there is this
difference: the old laws were imposed by
a government in London; the new law is
the work of the American democracy itself.
These are grave and incontestable evils.
Every American lawyer and statesman
deplores them. Nothing can be worse for
the morale of a country than a widespread
disregard of the law. Already Americans
complain of the terrible prevalence of
serious crime in their country, and of the
great difficulty in securing convictions for
murder. And now with prohibition, the
forces making for lawless action and a
cynical disregard for legality are enor-
mously increased. When a firm impu-
dently describes itself as "official bootleg-
ger to the Cabinet and the Supreme
Court," it would be idle to deny the mag-
nitude of the evil.

On the other hand, it is contended that
far less liquor is drunk in the States under
prohibition than was formerly consumed.
I imagine that this is unquestionably true.
Though the rich people who want liquor
can obtain it at a price, the same facilities
are not open to the poor. Employers of
labor tell us that labor is more regula in
consequence of prohibition, and that the
industrial output of the country has been
materially increased. Moreover, a saloon
which operates in a back room and is
liable to a police raid offers fewer tempta-
tions to the ordinary passer-by than a
saloon flaunting its wares in the full light
of day.

a young, rare, and tent w it is robust and plentiful Women's conferences, women en's leagues, women's org other than purely social p eatly multiplied. eminine influence operated he passage of the Eightee I cannot say, but those t prohibition has come to are justified in pointing to t te as a factor likely to oper its continuance. Needless ange which has come recent years is more conti lently discussed than this d f social legislation. By ently denounced as a bread ution, as an intolerable i individual liberty, as the p ness and crime

ir and s

My belief is that the continuance of the Eighteenth Amendment will ultimately depend upon the extent to which the manufacturers can prove that the amendment

imagine, a great triumph of social and reThe Eighteenth Amendment was, I ligious idealism. It is also illustrative of a tendency in American political thought which may have been latent fifteen years ago, but was certainly not obvious to the traveller's eye. I allude to the growing the Constitution as admitting of improvedisposition to regard the sacred fabric of ments.

hands how very difficult it was to alter Fifteen years ago I was told on all the Constitution, and how unlikely it was that serious changes would be made in view of the exacting requirements of the Constitution. Now it seems to me that the American people are beginning to view the masterpiece of the Philadelphia Convention with diminished reverence. Have you not in recent years carried without apparent difficulty three important amendments, and is not a fourth under consideration as I write these words? come when America will say of the house Shade of Madison! The day may even which you designed for her, that in this age of steam and electricity it would be

the be

IKE the modern novel, the modern short story seems to have originated or at least received its present stamp-in France. English writers, in this line, were slower in attaining the point to which the French and Russians first carried the art.

Since then the short story has devel-
oped, and reached out in fresh directions,
in the hands of such novelists as Mr.
Hardy (only occasionally at his best in
this form), of Stevenson, James, and Con-
rad, all three almost unfailingly excellent
in it, of Mr. Kipling, past-master of the
conte, and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch,
whose delightful early volumes, "Noughts
and Crosses" and "I Saw Three Ships,"
are less known than they deserve. These
writers had long been preceded by Scott
in "Wandering Willy's Tale" and other
short stories, by Poe, the sporadic and
unaccountable, and by Hawthorne; but
almost all the best tales of Scott, Haw-
thorne and Poe belong to that peculiar
category of the eerie which lies outside of
the classic tradition.

When the novel of manners comes to
be dealt with, classification in order of
time will have to be reversed, and in order
of merit will be less easy; for even against
Balzac, Tolstoy, and Turgenev the genius
of the great English observers, from Rich-
ardson and Jane Austen to Thackeray
and Dickens, will weigh heavily in the
balance. With regard to the short story,
however, and especially to that compact-
est form of it, the short short-story or
conte, its first specimens are undoubtedly
of continental production; but happily
for English letters the generation which
took over and adapted the formula were
nursed on the Goethean principle that
"those who remain imprisoned in the

false notion of their own o
always fall short of wha
have accomplished."

The sense of form-alrea
the order, in time and i
which the narrated inciden

is, in all the arts, spec
classic, the Latin tradition
years of form (in the wide
sense), of its observance, i
of artistic expression, hay
its tacit acceptance as the
ground, for the French w
of many superfluous enc
the soil of France is of all
weeded, tilled, and ductile
art, wherever French cult
the most worked-over and
pared for whatever seed is

But when the great Rus
to French culture much
generally conceded) took
thing, the French nouvell
the additional dimension
lacked. In any really go
has only to probe deep e
to tears; and the Russian
dig to that depth. The
to give to the short story
great closeness of texture
Russian art have combin
of form. Instead of a lo
over the surface of life the
at its best, a shaft driv
the heart of human expe

THOUGH the critic no need of classifying and su genres which so preocc temporaries of Wordswo all the arts, certain loca Such, in fiction, is the seem to necessitate a pa natural. It seems to mysterious Germanic an ests, from lands of long t

iction

ON

of their own originality short of what they might plished."

of form-already defined as in time and importance, i arrated incidents are grouped the arts, specifically of the Latin tradition. A thousand m (in the widest disciplinary s observance, its applicati ceptance as the first condita expression, have cleared the the French writer of ficti uperfluous encumbrances. A France is of all soils the mos ed, and ductile, so the field ver French culture extends, i orked-over and the most pr hatever seed is to be sown in n the great Russians (who culture much more than 5 conceded) took over that French nouvelle, they gave onal dimension it most ofte n any really good subject o probe deep enough to c nd the Russians almost al t depth. The result has be the short story, as French

t have combined to share
ness of texture with profe
Instead of a loose web.
urface of life they have me
, a shaft driven straight
of human experience.

ing winds; and it certainly did not pass through French or even Russian hands to reach us. Sorcerers and magic are of the south, the Mediterranean; the witch of Theocritus brewed a brew fit for her sisterhags of the Scottish heath; but the spectral apparition walks only in the pages of English and Germanic fiction.

345

inherited from an earlier phase of raceculture, such as the belief in ghosts. No one with a spark of imagination ever objected to a good ghost story as "improbable"-though Mrs. Barbauld, who doubtless lacked the spark, is said to have condemned "The Ancient Mariner" on this ground. Most of us retain the more rors, and airy tongues that syllable men's or less shadowy memory of ancestral ternames. We cannot believe a priori in the probability of the actions of madmen, or neurasthenics, because their reasoning processes escape most of us, or can at best be imagined only as belonging to abnorbody knows a good ghost when he reads mal and exceptional people; but everyabout him.

It has done so, to great effect, in some
of the most original of our great English
short stories, from Scott's "Wandering
Willy" and Poe's awful hallucinations to
Lefanu's "Dragon Volant," and from the
"Thrawn Janet" of Stevenson to "The
Turn of the Screw" of Henry James, last
- great master of the eerie in English.

All these tales, in which the effect
sought is completely achieved, are models
of artifice. It is not enough to believe in
ghosts, or even to have seen one, to be
able to write a good ghost story. The
greater the improbability to be overcome
the more studied must be the approach,
the more perfectly maintained the air of
naturalness, the assumption that things
are always likely to happen in that way.
One of the chief obligations, in any
kind of short story, is to give the reader.
an immediate sense of security. Every
phrase should be a sign-post, and never
(unless intentionally) a misleading one:
the reader must feel that he can trust to
their guidance. His confidence once
gained, he may be lured on to the most
incredible adventures-as the Arabian
Nights are there to show. A wise critic
once said: "You may ask your reader to
believe anything you can make him be-
lieve." It is never the genii who are un-
real, but only their unconvinced histori-
an's description of them. The least touch
of irrelevance, the least chill of inatten-
tion, will instantly undo the spell, and it
will take as long to weave again as to get
Humpty Dumpty back on his wall. The
moment the reader loses faith in the
author's sureness of foot the chasm of
improbability gapes.

Improbability is never a danger, but
the appearance of improbability is; unless,
indeed, the tale be based on what, in my
first article,* I called pathological condi-
tions-conditions of body or mind outside
the field of normal experience. But this,
of course, does not apply to states of m

the next rule of the game is to avoid disWhen the reader's confidence is gained tracting and splintering up his attention. Many a would-be tale of horror becomes innocuous through the multiplication and variety of its horrors. Above all, if they are multiplied they should be cumulative and not dispersed. But the fewer the better: once the preliminary horror posited, it is the harping on the same stringthe same nerve that does the trick. Quiet iteration is far more racking than diversified assaults; the expected more frightful than the unforeseen. The play of "Emperor Jones" is a striking instance of the power of simplification and repetition to excite in an audience a corresponding state of tension. By sheer voodoo-practice it showed how voodoo acts. stands alone among tales of the superIn "The Turn of the Screw"-which natural in maintaining the ghostliness of its ghosts not only through a dozen pages but through close on two hundredthe economy of horror is carried to its last degree. What is the reader made to expect? Always-all through the bookthat somewhere in that tranquil doomed house the poor little governess will come whom she is fighting for the souls of her on one of the two figures of evil with charges. It will be either Peter Quint or the "horror of horrors," Miss Jessel; no diversion from this one dread is ever attempted. It is true that the tale is strongly held together by its profound