XXXIV] 



SOCIALISM 



273 



which I felt sure he could do better than any one I knew. 

 His reply was so interesting from a literary point of view 

 that I give it here. It is the last letter I received from him. 



" Hotel Royal, Varenna, Italy, April 24. 



" I despair of giving you in writing all the reasons why 

 your suggestion is for me an impossible one. There are 

 eleven thousand ; I will content myself with two. The first 

 is practical. I have to write stories which editors will accept 

 and the public will buy. Now, no editor will take a socialistic 

 story — I have tried, and failed ; and the public will not buy 

 such stories to a sufficient extent to pay for the trouble. As 

 a general rule, the more in earnest I am about a subject, the 

 less I get for it. The second reason is artistic. A story grows 

 out of a plot or situation, and cannot be forced in the way 

 you describe, as I at least do not know how to force it. 

 Plots come. I could not invent a plot in order to sustain a 

 particular thesis. Thank you so much for the many kind 

 expressions in your letter. Come and see us some day on 

 Hind Head, when you are passing up or down, and we will 

 thrash this matter out more fully. 



" With very kind regards, 



" Cordially yours, 



"Grant Allen." 



I do not know to what he alludes when he says he " has 

 tried and failed." " The Woman who Did " was not social- 

 istic, and I can only suppose he refers to a short story of life 

 in a phalanstery, where all children in the least deformed are 

 killed at one year old, for the improvement of the race ; and 

 the feelings of the mother for her first-born are vividly 

 described, though, as the law was absolute and known from 

 childhood, it was submitted to uncomplainingly ! But 

 neither of these stories had any necessary connection with 

 socialism, and were especially repugnant to our customs 

 and ideals. But there is nothing whatever repugnant in 

 socialism itself, and I cannot believe that a story by a 

 well-known and talented writer would be unsaleable merely 



VOL. IL T 



