The Eternal City is not only a history: it is a prophecy also. It contains a solemn warning, and states the case of the people with unparalleled insight and sympathy. If the next few years do not witness a mighty change in the mode of Government of the peoples of Europe, it will be because some tremendous outside force, which has not yet been reckoned with, has intervened, and changed the current of social and international politics.
In looking at Mr Hall Caine’s future it is impossible to see with any certainty what he is likely to achieve. A novelist he is, and a novelist he will always remain, for he is a born writer, and could not separate himself from his work even if he desired to do so. Besides, he has a worldwide public to address—a public that increases in large numbers year by year—and to sacrifice an audience of millions of human beings would be the very height of folly. And there can be no manner of doubt that he realises that the written word has immeasurably greater power than that which is merely spoken. The responsibility of his position often weighs heavily upon him, for he feels that his power over the destinies of those who love his works is almost illimitable, and a single false step might mean ruin to the lives of hundreds of his fellow-creatures. Yet, in his later works, I see a desire on his part to enter more closely into the lives of the masses: he seems to be obsessed by the ambition to make easier the lives of the ignorant and uneducated, and to be anxious to reach those into whose hands a book of his can never fall. I have very good reason to suppose that he contemplates entering public life as a politician or as a lecturer on social reform—but a career of that kind would mean sacrificing an audience of millions that he reaches by his novels, for an audience that could certainly be estimated in thousands. But still there are many whom he wishes to aid who are, in the present condition of things, beyond his reach; how to bring himself in touch with this section of humanity, he cannot yet perceive, but I have no doubt that in the course of time he will find a way out of the difficulty.
This gradual dawning of sympathy on the part of Hall Caine with the suffering and oppressed is one of the most interesting features in the study of his life and work. That he has always sympathised with the poor and ignorant we have ample evidence in the account of the Reverend William Pierce of his early life in Liverpool; but this sympathy did not begin to evince itself in his work until The Deemster was published, where in parts it was clearly seen that the lower classes were gaining a strong hold upon his heart and imagination. The Christian eventually showed the depth of this sympathy, and in what way he thought it advisable to put it into practical form.
From time to time it has been rumoured that Mr Caine has the intention of dealing with the drink question in a novel; but I am able to state that, though he has been and is profoundly moved by the misery and shame which are caused by the too free use of alcohol, yet he has been unable to see his way to treat it in a work of fiction. It is true, the subject has engaged his attention for some considerable time, and on my last visit to him he spoke long and earnestly on this question. Whatever he may decide to do in the future, it is certain that for the next two or three years he will be occupied with another Manx novel. He has thought of making the recent Bank failure the subject of his work, but before he decides definitely he is to take a long rest. Each fresh novel he writes drains away his strength, for to him writing means a constant struggle, a bitter emotional experience which almost prostrates him. Of late he has also been turning his attention to the Life of Christ, which he wrote some years ago, but which has never yet been published in spite of the many tempting offers which he has received for the copyright. It has not been my privilege to read this book, but I may say that Mr Caine believes it to contain some of his best work. Speaking of the year 1890, he says: “I had read Rénan’s Life of Christ, and had been deeply impressed by it, and I had said that there was a splendid chance for a life of Christ as vivid and as personal (if that were possible) from the point of belief as Rénan’s was from the point of unbelief.” It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that such a work from the pen of Mr Caine would be of absorbing interest to all his readers, and it is to be hoped that he will be prevailed upon to give it to the world.
And now I come to the end of my work. I have attempted no comparison between him and his contemporaries, for his place in the literature of England must be left for future generations to decide. Suffice it to say, that it seems to me he must be placed in the very front rank of all novelists, living or dead; for in few writers do I see such sympathy, such depth of knowledge of human nature, such insight, such power, and such discrimination as I see in the work of Hall Caine. However this may be, it is certain that no novelist—of this or past generations—has so profoundly stirred the masses of England and America as Hall Caine has done. He has influenced his own generation to a greater extent than can possibly be estimated; that his influence has been of an ennobling, purifying nature few will deny, and those who find evil in his books must look into their own hearts and cast out the wickedness that they find there. “To the pure all things are pure”; well, not quite all, but one cannot help suspecting that those who have such keen noses for scenting evil odours are not themselves so free from corruption as they would have us believe.
THE END
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