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Show "LATER AET Or KIPLING ' Now the fundamental . change from Mr. Kinimg's earlier to his later work is simply the development ef this idea (and this idea may be an oat shortly i-presaed i-presaed as a kind of eoemic esprit de corps) from an instinctive mental attitude at-titude "into a mature and thoughtful philosophy. Whatever superficisl change we recently condemn are, for better or for worse, natural corollaries of this development. Thus the casual objection to ant sins- Courageous" was that at best it ws only the sd-venture sd-venture of a boy in a Gloucester fishing fish-ing schooner; but the whole point of this boy's story i that it ia toe storv nf tbe making of a man. It deal with tbe development of an offensive little monkey through toil and discipline into an honorable worker; with the forging nfW)f-importanr into self respect. Thus the "Jungle Books" were stigmatised stig-matised as fable for children; but for growa people they are also parables informed with the deepest and kent satire) and the idea behind them ia the jungle law. Other writers had nsed the affairs of gnimsU to point an alle- ?oricgl moral or adorn an ataviatie ale; only Mr. Kipling ha imagined an organic commonwealth of be ate to tvmbolize the organism of all mankind. And while the children ar following the mere storv. their fathers may read into the "Polf Pack" the history of home or Athens or England, understand under-stand chivalry in Ragheera or scholarship schol-arship in Baloo. and ae m the "Monkey "Mon-key People" the Latin race, the South American republic, or the futility of their own souls. ft ia alwavs the mark of the eond rat artist to repeat contentedly a I rat sueeeae, to work a single vein beyond the point of diminishing return. Ths effect of an artifice weakens by habit lik the effect of a drug, and the artist ceasing to grow begins that instant to decay. There is no gift so great but it must blunt itself upon monotony, but the greater artist will go steadily oa saying oae thing after another as wait as he can. exhausting one branch of his era ft onlv to discover and develop the nit. This Mr. Kiphng has dona, and In the doing has become from year to year a wiser poet and a more artful craftsman- North American Review. |