THE ROOTS OF MODERN TASTE
523
Henry James's essay on Howells is well known, and in that
essay there are three sentences which by implication define the
ground of our present inhospitality to Howells. They have the ad–
vantage for our inquiry of appearing in the friendliest possible con–
text, and they are intended not as judgments, certainly not as adverse
judgments, but only as descriptions. This is the first statement: "He
is animated by a love of the
com~on,
the immediate, the familiar,
and the vulgar elements of life, and holds that in proportion as we
move into the rare and strange we become vague and arbitrary; that
truth of representation, in a word, can be achieved only so long as it
is in our power to test and measure it." Here is the second statement:
"He hates a 'story,' and (this private feat is not impossible) has
probably made up his mind very definitely as to what the pestilent
thing consists of. Mr. Howells hates an artificial fable, a denouement
that is pressed into service; he likes things to occur as in life, where
the manner of a great many of them is not to occur at all." And
here is the third statement:
"If
American life is on the whole, as I
make no doubt whatever, more innocent than that of any other
country, nowhere is the fact more patent than in Mr. Howells'
novels, which exhibit so constant a study of the actual and so small a
perception of evil."
It will be immediately clear from these statements how far
from our modem taste Howells is likely to be. I have said they are
objective statements, that they ,are descriptions and not judgments, yet
we can hear in them some ambiguity of tone-some ambiguity of
tone must inevitably be there, for James is defining not only his
friend's work but, by inversion, his own. And almost in the degree
that we admire James and defend his artistic practice, we are com–
mitted to resist Howells. But I think we must have the grace to see
that in resisting Howells, in rejecting him, we are resisting and reject–
ing something more than a literary talent or temperament or method.
There is in Howells, as I have tried to suggest, an odd kind of muted,
stubborn passion which we have to take account of, and respect, and
recognize for what it is, the sign of a commitment, of an involvement
in very great matters-we are required to see that in making our
judgment of him we are involved in considerations of way of life,
of quality of being.
His passion and its meaning become apparent whenever he
