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THE
LAUGHING MILL
And Other Stories.
BY
JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1879.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,
CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.
PREFACE.
What is called the human interest in fiction isdoubtless more absorbing than any other, but otherlegitimate sources of interest exist. The marvellousalways possesses a fascination, and justly; for whileit is neither human nature nor fact, it ministers to anæsthetic appetite of the mind which neither fact norhuman nature can gratify. Superstition has beenwell abused; but that were a sad day which shouldbehold the destruction in us of the quality whichkeeps superstition alive. Fortunately that daycan never come—least of all under a Positivistadministration.
Such works as “The Tempest,” “Faust,” and“Consuelo” show their authors at their best, because,being obliged by the subject to soar abovethe level of vulgar possibility, the writers catch agleam of transcendent sunlight on their wings. Andhe who would mirror in his works the whole of man[iv]must needs include the impossible along with therest. Whoever has lived thoughtfully feels that therehas been something in his experience beyond whatappears in “Tom Jones,” “Adam Bede,” and “VanityFair.” They are earth without sky. I do not referto that goody-goody Sunday-school sky which weepsand smirks over the mimic worlds of so many worthynovelists, male and female; but to that unfathomedmystery opening all around us—the sky of Shakespeareand Dante, of Goethe and Georges Sand. Areader with a healthy sense of justice feels that anoccasional excursion mystery-ward is no more thanhe has a right to demand. And such excursions arewholesome for literature no less than for him. Forthe story-teller, sensible of the risk he runs of makinghis supernatural element appear crude and ridiculous,exerts himself to the utmost, and his style andmethod purify and wax artistic under the strain.
These remarks must smooth the way to theconfession that in the present volume no “humaninterest” will be found, or has been attempted. Thegist of the work (or at least of three-fourths of it)is to show how the impossible might occur. Now,in order to appreciate the delicate flavour of a ghost,[v]it is indispensable that the palate should not becloyed by a contemporary diet of flesh and blood.In other words, the reality of the personages