FIERY PARTICLES.*
THE fact that Mr. Montagae had published his masterpiece, Disenchantment, but some months before this book of short stories led us to look for too much in them. If, like the present writer, one had found Disenchantment at once a summing-up of. one's. whole, inchoate mental attitude towards public events and intrinsically so delightful to read that one experienced a real sense- of personal loss when it was done, then inevitably these short stories will disappoint. The truth is that while in the sphere of public events Mr. Montague is a prophet with something new to say, in literature he is but— well, but Mr. Kipling with a Radical instead of an Imperialist bias. Naturally enough, Mr. Montague has foreseen that some " tart reviewer " would say as much. In a• prefatory note he has, in apologizing for the fieriness of his characters, launched an attack on the present analytic type of fiction :- " I fear these ardent cranks are a. little out of fashion. They ought numbly to suffer the business or game of living, not pull it about nor try to give it new twists, each to his own wayward liking. Ours is the day of the hero, who slips through life ; voleble, yes ; but passive, a drifter, pleading that he is the fault of everyone else and declining all of life that is declinable. Still, what is a fellow to do ? If, of all the men you have known,• none will come back to your mind except arrant lovers of living, mighty hunters of lions or shadows, rapt amateurs of shady adventure or profitless zeal, how can you steep them in languor enough to bring them up to the mark ? Better let them go, and take their chance, as the fiery particles that they were in the flesh."
But Mr. Montague is wrong. The hero of the day does not slip through life. Rather he lets- life slip through him. At any rate, he should if he wishes to savour it. After all, why should we suppose that these men who dash at life have a love of it ? Certainly the best way to avoid being conscious that one is alive at all is to keep oneself too busy to think. Con- versely, all the most intense " livers " of history have been persons of comparative inaction. Whether or-not-it is prudent to live intensely is, of course, quite-another-matter. However, the short stories are excellently done, and this peculiar attitude of adulation for the active if it does not annoy will doubtless be found most attractive.
• Fiery Parader. BM K moataiwe.. lasndes Chitictandiftedun. [7a. aeij
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