Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/17

IDEALS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE XI a reporter and every distinct group of people a secretary. This notable extension of literary interest and activity is most strikingly shown in the field of fiction, and especially in the production of the short story, in the writing of which Americans have put them- selves quite on a level with the makers of this kind of literature in those older countries which have fostered the arts for many centuries. There are short stories from American hands which may be placed beside the best work of the French writers, whose mastery of form has given them high authority in almost all the arts. In the short story is to be found, therefore, not only the most complete picture of what Americans care for and seek after, but the fullest disclosure of their aims and standards as writers. Art is a very subtle and elusive thing when one tries to analyze and describe it, to lay bare its psychology and to master its secrets of skill; but, for this purpose, it is enough to define it as the best way of reporting a phase of Nature, recording an experience or portraying a character. Sometimes its methods are very subtle, sometimes they are very simple ; at all times it is the best way of doing or saying a thing. In reporting a fact or drawing a figure there is room, however, for the widest variation of method; and, especially, for great differ- ences of emphasis. Some artists are so possessed by their subject that their whole effort is to render that subject in the most direct and sincere manner, in the simplest possible terms. Other artists are so absorbed in the process of transcription from life to art, so keenly sensitive to the resources that lie in their hands, so enamored of the joys of skill, that they are concerned chiefly with the subtle, sensitive report which grows to perfection under their touch, and the weight of emphasis rests not on the fact or truth communicated but on the method of communication. Those who hold in an extreme form the view that art exists for itself, attach immense importance to the way in which a thing is said and slight importance to the thing that is said; those who hold, on the other hand, that art is language and that the chief use of language is to convey impressions, truths,