A NEW MASTER OF ENGLISH PROSE I9 



The greatest height, indeed, he himself never confidently achieves; for 

 he concludes his dialogue on The Meaning of Good, a search for reahty, 

 with a glorious allegorical vision, and waking from it says : 



So that I have had to go on ever since with the knowledge I then acquired, that 

 whatever Reality may ultimately be, it is in the life of the affections, with all its con- 

 fused tangle of loves and hates, attractions, repulsions, and, worst of all, indiffer- 

 ences, it is in this intricate commerce of souls that we may come nearest to appre- 

 hending what perhaps we shall never whoUy apprehend, but the quest of which alone, 

 as I believe, gives any significance to life, and makes it a thing which a wise and 

 brave man will be able to persuade himself it is right to endure. 

 Accordingly, with his great Greek master and not a few others from the 

 kings of thought, he seems to end his cHmbing in a cloud; but it is a 

 cloud Hghtened by hope rather than darkened by despair, and enforces 

 the thought that "they see not clearliest who see all things clear." To 

 other peaks, however, he leads us, where the vista is as clear as it is 

 beautiful, and even the paths through the lower-lying valleys have their 

 own appropriate charm. 



The themes treated by Mr. Dicldnson are not new, nor does the form 

 of his treatment offer any innovation. Rehgion, the meaning of good, 

 literature, art in general — in short, the things of the mind and the spirit — 

 are treated in essay or dialogue or letter, ahd we do not need to be 

 reminded that these forms were brought to artistic perfection in olden 

 days. The fact is merely that, having chosen immortal topics, he has 

 treated them with not less largeness of outlook than clearness of inward 

 vision, and has exhibited unerring judgment and unfaihng skill in adapt- 

 ing his form to his matter. Thus he is manifestly right in his feeling that 

 a discussion of the meaning of good belongs "to the sphere of right opin- 

 ion and perception, rather than to that of logic and demonstration, and 

 seems therefore to be properly approached in the tentative spirit favored 

 by the Dialogue form," nor can we refuse to agree that this literary form 

 comes closest to the interchange of actual conversation, "from which we 

 gain our best Hghts on such a subject." The same unerring instinct or 

 judgment leads him to put his contrast between eastern and western ideals 

 (Letters from a Chinese Official) in the form of letters from an enlight- 

 ened Chinaman who has resided long in England without losing his 

 affection for his native land and all that it represents. Howbeit, other 



