Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/192

166 166 THE REAL STANLEY HOUGHTON towering tremendously above the levels of his shires ; and whilst he knows, as none born in it can, the real relation which it bears to the wide base, the trees of Lebanon that support the staggering rows, he also accepts it as a symbol of the sacred power and pride of men, a glittering proof of the greatness of his kind. He may grow familiar enough with London after entering her gates, grow sick to the soul of her detailed dirt and stupidities ; but the memory of that first, massed, impersonal vision never quite fades from his mind. It stamps it with a stupendous standard of achievement. It makes him, for all his life, both emulous and humble — keen to be adequate, but aware that adequacy is a gigantic thing. Above everything it gives him that belief in life's lordliness which must be possessed by all who want to paint common men. He is a man who has seen a vision and his sight is the clearer. He is aware of the wonders of existence. He is alive with the optimism of art. Stanley Houghton, born in Lancashire, had both this vision and this faith, and they helped him to succeed as he did — he triumphed over London because he held it in awe. But he also suffered for this simplicity. It postponed his true prime. Provincialism enriched his capacity for understanding other people ; but it limited his knowledge oi himself. We have a habit of assuming that an artist's earliest work, being his most artless, is the most likely to betray his native instincts ; and given conditions of some completeness, with a full freedom of choice, it is possible that the naive admission of elective models which it shows will form a guide to his natural preferences and affinities. Young Chesterton, in Kensington, dabbling at the Slade, did not take long to discover his true bent ; all the arts, with specimen artists, were spread before him, on approval ; he could try them all within a year and