Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/712



HE ordinary observer is a phrase ill-favoured in most eyes, because people have linked the essentially revolting trio; ordinary, common, and vulgar in an overwhelming slur. The ordinary observer is not always the ultimate criterion of all creative effort. There are works of cabalistic appeal to which the ordinary observer can never do justice, but they are, by their very nature, eternally esoteric, and sleep well on library shelves. The ordinary observer is an intelligent, decently educated person who demands that a book exhibit some excuse for his reading it.

The ordinary observer is perhaps faintly at a loss in regard to Arthur Schnitzler. He has the cabalistic appeal; he cannot be classified, being a little of everything from realist to symbolist to romanticist. He lies thwart the canons of the schools, helping himself impartially. Now the ordinary observer knows that it is a serious mistake to suppose that rules are hampering things. Even Boileau, who was very near being hampered by them, knew better, and proposed that hypothesis more important than all his alexandrines; rules are a short cut to excellence. Arthur Schnitzler happens to be one of those people who attain excellence inevitably, and short cuts do not interest him. The ordinary observer realizes that, but he realizes just as acutely that Schnitzler’s work has flaws, brutal and exasperating flaws. A quotation from The Shepherd's Pipe indicates their nature:

"Suddenly melodious sounds became disengaged from the silence of the valley which lay gray in the dawn. Dionysia opened her eyes and listened, her expression which had been relaxed in despairing weariness assumed new life. Erasmus noticed it, and immediately released Dionysia from his embrace.

Do you recognise the sound that is rising to us?' he asked, 'They are the notes of a shepherd's pipe. And see, without wishing to confess it to yourself and without being really quite aware of it,