experience on each item of work that he vnidertook.
No doubt his novels will be by the world (and rightly)
regarded as his chief contribution to literature. For
brilliant sketches of the latest phases of fashionable
life — the last break-down of the old aristocratic society
under modern influences, the rising flood of vulgarest
commercialism — the roue old Duke falling into the toils
of the stock-jobber and his pretty wife, the Duchess
asking them to dinner ' to make things look all right,
you know ' ; the rampant joy of the money-bags ; the
strange medley at dinner-party or in ball-room, the
Californian girls so naively candid that ' society ' can-
not tell whether they are extremely wicked or ex-
tremely innocent, the fossil old flirt, the risque stories,
the gossipy woman who reports it all on the sly to one
of the society papers — for sketches of this kind Picca-
dilly and Altioni Peto are unrivalled. Sketches they
are ; the characters are touched in with light and easy
hand, there is no attempt at deep passion or portraiture;
but — and this is an important point — the humanity of
it all is unmistakable, the wicked people are not be-
yond recall, the Mirkles and Lauriolas chiefly condemn
themselves by making themselves ridiculous ; a kindly
sparkling ripple plays all through these books.
To all which the deeper current of occultism moves in marked and effective contrast. Here we come upon the other side of Oliphant's nature, and that which ultimately became dearest to him. It was no doubt this impulsion, and the discovery that there are regions of human consciousness which as yet have been only partially explored, that led our author to forsake society, as hinted in the closing chapter of Piccadilli/, to join the community of Oneida Creek, to undergo common labours, a temporary separation even from his well-loved wife, and finally to seek inspiration in the pure air and presumably rich magnetic field of Mount Carmel.
On the occult side Oliphant's style loses some of its charm and tact. The diary of Alliera is the least vivid part of the work in which it occurs ; Masollam, which deals with that most interesting subject, the 'subsurface' consciousness of our human relations to each other, is perhaps a trifle dull ; Sjjmpiicuinata and Scien- tific Religion are undeniably heavy reading. But this does not prove that this part of his work is not valuable. Perhaps it was inevitable that when Oliphant left the region of ' society,' in which he was a master, for a region of new experiences, his style should lose its grip and become tentative and laborious. All the same the new experiences are valuable. If the two last-mentioned books bear a painful resemblance to ploughed fields, there lie scattered in these fields the seeds of a new and potent life. It was because Oliphant felt so intensely the germinal power of certain experiences that he had had that he was willing to sacrifice everything for the development and utterance of these. Those who scoff at occultism (and it is un- deniable that it has its morbid side) ignore the fact that as the human consciousness develops and deepens, it does and must inevitably pass into regions of new and unexpected experience. The man becomes aware of sensations, capacities, powers, within himself, which previously he was simply not aware of. The exact iiderprelalioii of these new modes of consciousness, the meaning of them, their relation and place in actual life, etc. etc., are matters which can only be settled by time, by shrewd and careful observation, testing, and so forth ; but that they are there admits of no doubt ; least of all would it seem that the believer in Evolu- tion can refuse to credit their existence.
The delicious character of Hannah in Altiora Peto illustrates this. Hannah is perfectly aware that she is moved by the desires and thoughts of certain other people at a distance from her ; but as to Keith Hetherington's explanation about molecules ('raollycools ' she calls them), she leaves that to the learned. And one can't altogether help wishing that in Oliphant's latest book the quasi-' scientific ' explanations about the 'interlocking of atoms,' 'atomic rapport,' etc., had been separated from the description of actual experiences or been left to the learned of some later generation.
That Oliphant was conscious in himself of a body different from what we ordinarily call our mortal body, yet in some sense entangled with it ; that in this higher body the nature of Se.x was felt by him to be in some degree altered — the female and male elements being both present in it ; and that he was aware that this body had swift and far-reaching relations with the universe outside it ; are matters which no one who reads his books can for a moment doubt. To have placed on record these mere facts of consciousness is to have done a great service.
To some it may seem strange that the sympathetic sociable man of the world should also have been in receipt of experiences belonging to so different a plane; but perhaps it is not so strange. Oliphant was more than cosmopolitan; he was an accepter of humanity. The same gift which made him at home in Paris and London made him at home among day-labourers on the shores of Lake Erie, and in every country of the world. Having passed through the various phases of humanity, the experiences which lie below all classes, creeds, and nationalities were rightfully his. In this respect he represents to us the modern Man, who with a wider sympathy will, we may hope, develop also a deeper consciousness than was possible to his predecessors. Edward Carpenter.
