special tone or atmosphere. But I do not know
that one can define this atmosphere or the per-
sonality from which it emanates. Its clearest dis-
tinction lies perhaps in the combination of a rig-
orously impersonal method, shunning equally
sentimentality and satire, with an intensely per-
sonal manner and with irrepressible humor; so
that the very acuity of the observation he brings
to bear upon the human scene seems to condition
the romance and diversion he extracts from it.
The shrewder, the more dispassionate his scru-
tiny, the greater his power to charm, to touch, or
to amuse; the more transparent his fact, the more
keenly he makes his reader feel the sentiment, the
poetry, the humor, or the sermon that resides in
it--and, if we are to believe him, nowhere else.
There is something whimsical in this and some-
thing gay; but genial is a simpler and better word
for his most habitual and most fortunate mood.
Geniality is the qualité maîtresse. And that for-
bids him the field of satire. His ventures in that
direction all have the quality of his father's char-
acteristic rebuke on a certain occasion when
Grandfather Howells had reported some juvenile
indecorum: "Boys, consider yourselves soundly
thrashed."

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