VARIETY
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make ridicule pointless and in the
end remind the more sophisticated
of their own insensitivity.
The senator is qualified to act
as the representative American by
having his opinions compounded of
Jeffersonianism, Abolitionism, Rad–
ical-Republicanism, , Rationalism,
and Utilitarianism, a combination
turning out to be much more radi–
cal than the author expected. The
senator uses such phrases as "the
demand for progressive equality
which is made by the united voices
of suffering mankind," marvels at
the docility of the English lower
classes, and is reluctant to admit
"that one man should be rich and
another poor is a necessity in the
present imperfect state of civiliza–
tion. . . . " He is the type of the
anti-aesthetic man whose eye is so
intently on the ball, on the princi–
ple, the universal, that he has be–
come obtuse to all particular in–
stances, moods, shades, tones, and
the reactions of the people he talks
to. The type can be depressing, but
it also compels our respect. Trol–
lope, with his relish for the petty,
feels some guilt towards the sena–
tor-goes as far as to allow him to
attack his own beloved sport of fox–
hunting on grounds well-taken.
And since fox-hunting can be de–
fended only aesthetically, Trollope
can file his rebuttal only by writ–
ing two or three superb hunting
scenes.
The senator arouses widespread
animosity by his outspoken sur–
prise at the injustices and ano–
malies of the English social order
and by siding with a disreputable
farmer in his litigation with Lord
Rufford for indemnity for . crops
eaten by the lord's game pheasants.
Finishing his study, which he has
carried out with great conscien–
tiousness, he gives a sensational lec–
ture in London at which he tells a
distinguished and overflowing audi–
ence just what he has found
wrong with England: namely, the
irrationality of Englishmen. The
audience riots and he is unable to
finish. "He had not much above
half done yet. There were the law–
yers before him, and the Civil Ser–
vice, and the railways, and the
commerce of the country, and the
labouring classes." But no matter,
he is already apotheosized, and
floats high above the rest of the
Trollopian world, drawing reluc–
tant admiration from it. By dint of
having been consistently exagger–
ated in one direction, the senator
passes beyond the grotesque and
reaches the highest seriousness.
His Americanism turns out to be
a kind of moral imperialism, quite
different from the Americanism of
Henry James's pilgrims, who carry
their innocence to Europe humbly.
But the senator does have a few
Jamesian twinges, just to prove
that he is not a simple, silly, holy,
irrelevant man with no awareness
of human susceptibilities. He writes
home of his admiration of the
"easy grace" and "sweet pleasant
J
voices and soft movements" of
English aristocrats, and that there
is a "pleasure in associating with
those here of the highest mark
which I find hard to describe."
The senatorial flourish excepted,
the book ends weakly. Reginald
discovers that he loves Mary, and
they get married-but these two
were a dead loss from the begin–
ning. Poor Larry's fate is left in
suspension. Lady Arabella goes off
to Patagonia with her husband on
a minor diplomatic mission. But
her story had seemed to be work–
ing up to some more exciting de–
nouement, which would have left
it ringing in the reader's memory.
Patagonia is not enough. In the
end only the senator remains. Trol-
