published I find that the George Moore of the earlier year is the
George Moore of to-day. The novelist of 1895 and the novelist of 1915
are one and the same person. Each is really interested in himself;
each is more concerned with how the world and its humanity appear to
him than how they appear to the casual observer or how they may be in
themselves. The writer is always expressing himself through the facts
and personalities which have stirred his imagination to creative
effort. George Moore has never been a reporter or a philosopher; he
has always been an artist.

Now to say that the author of "Celibates" is always expressing himself
does not at all mean that he is recording merely his private
sensations, emotions, and moods. Egoist as he is, George Moore could
not write his autobiography. He tried to do this lately in "Ave,"
"Vale," and "Salve," and failed--failed captivatingly. He is always
most himself when he is dealing with what is not himself--with skies
and hills and ocean and gardens and men and women. Moore is a
naturalist in the finest sense of that word. He deals with nature as
the artist must deal with it if nature is to be understood and
enjoyed. For Moore's relationship with nature, and especially with
human nature, is of that rare kind which is the experience of the very
few--of those fine spirits endowed with the highest sympathy--a
sympathy which is not a feeling with or for others but an actual union
with others, a union which brings suffering as well as enjoyment. This
is the artist's burden of sorrow and it is also his privilege. It is
because of it that every true work of art has in it also something of
a religious influence--a binding power which unites the separated
onlookers in an experience of a common emotion. If the artist have not
this peculiar sympathy he can have no vision and will never be a
creator; he will never show us or tell us the new and strange