RAGGED LADY

W. D. Howells strives to make a frieze, a fresco of life as he sees it, and then, he himself withdrawing from his work, leads us to the spectacle. We are to be equally with himself the philosopher; he merely presents the text.

The reason why so many of us find his work not altogether to our personal liking lies simply in the choice of a field for his researches. To study the commonplace, the mean in life, has been his constant occupation, just as if the essence of humanity could be most clea...