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LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD
LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER INTRODUCTORY SKETCH
The title naturally suggested for this story was "A Dead Soul" but it
was discarded because of the similarity to that of the famous novel by
Nikolai Gogol--"Dead Souls"--though the motive has nothing in common with
that used by the Russian novelist. Gogol exposed an extensive fraud
practiced by the sale in connection with lands of the names of "serfs"
(called souls) not living or "dead souls."
This story is an attempt to trace the demoralization in a woman's soul of
certain well-known influences in our existing social life. In no other
way could certain phases of our society be made to appear so distinctly
as when reflected in the once pure mirror of a woman's soul.
The character of Margaret is the portrait of no one woman. But it was
suggested by the career of two women (among others less marked) who had
begun life with the highest ideals which had been gradually eaten away
and destroyed by "prosperous" marriages and association with unscrupulous
methods of acquiring money.
The deterioration was gradual. The women were in all outward conduct
unchanged the conventionalities of life were maintained the graces were
not lost the observances of the duties of charities and of religion were
even emphasized but worldliness had eaten the heart out of them and
they were "dead souls." The tragedy of the withered life was a
thousand-fold enhanced by the external show of prosperous respectability.
The story was first published (in 1888) in Harper's Monthly. During its
progress--and it was printed as soon as each installment was ready (a
very poor plan)--I was in receipt of the usual letters of sympathy or
protest and advice. One sympathetic missive urged the removal of
Margaret to a neighboring city where she could be saved by being brought
under special Christian influences. The transfer even in a serial was
impossible and she by her own choice lived the life she had entered
upon.
And yet if the reader will pardon the confidence pity intervened to
shorten it. I do not know how it is with other writers but the persons
that come about me in a little drama are as real as those I meet in
every-day life and in this case I found it utterly impossible to go on
to what might have been the bitter logical development of Margaret's
career. Perhaps it was as well. Perhaps the writer should have no
despotic power over his creations however slight they are. He may
profitably recall the dictum of a recent essayist that "there is no limit
to the mercy of God."
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
Hartford August 11 1899.
A LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD
I
We were talking about the want of diversity in American life the lack of
salient characters. It was not at a club. It was a spontaneous talk of
people who happened to be together and who had fallen into an
uncompelled habit of happening to be together. There might have been a
club for the study of the Want of Diversity in American Life. The
members would have been obliged to set apart a stated time for it to
attend as a duty and to be in a mood to discuss this topic at a set hour
in the future. They would have mortgaged another precious portion of the
little time left us for individual life. It is a suggestive thought that
at a given hour all over the United States innumerable clubs might be
considering the Want of Diversity in American Life. Only in this way
according to our present methods could one expect to accomplish anything
in regard to this foreign-felt want. It seems illogical that we could
produce diversity by all doing the same thing at the same time but we
know the value of congregate effort. It seems to superficial observers
that all Americans are born busy. It is not so. They are born with a
fear of not being busy; and if they are intelligent and in circumstances
of leisure they have such a sense of their responsibility that they
hasten to allot all their time into portions and leave no hour
unprovided for. This is conscientiousness in women and not
restlessness. There is a day for music a day for painting a day for
the display of tea-gowns a day for Dante a day for the Greek drama
a day for the Dumb Animals' Aid Society a day for the Society for the
Propagation of Indians and so on. When the year is over the amount
that has been accomplished by this incessant activity can hardly be
estimated. Individually it may not be much. But consider where Chaucer
would be but for the work of the Chaucer clubs and what an effect upon
the universal progress of things is produced by the associate
concentration upon the poet of so many minds.
A cynic says that clubs and circles are for the accumulation of
superficial information and unloading it on others without much
individual absorption in anybody. This like all cynicism contains only
a half-truth and simply means that the general diffusion of half-
digested information does not raise the general level of intelligence
which can only be raised to any purpose by thorough self-culture by
assimilation digestion meditation. The busy bee is a favorite simile
with us and we are apt to overlook the fact that the least important
part of his example is buzzing around. If the hive simply got together
and buzzed or even brought unrefined treacle from some cyclopaedia let
us say of treacle there would be no honey added to the general store.
It occurred to some one in this talk at last to deny that there was this
tiresome monotony in American life. And this put a new face on the
discussion. Why should there be with every race under the heavens
represented here and each one struggling to assert itself and no
homogeneity as yet established even between the people of the oldest
States? The theory is that democracy levels and that the anxious
pursuit of a common object money tends to uniformity and that facility
of communication spreads all over the land the same fashion in dress; and
repeats everywhere the same style of house and that the public schools
give all the children in the United States the same superficial
smartness. And there is a more serious notion that in a society without
classes there is a sort of tyranny of public opinion which crushes out
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