Selincourt is by far the
most interesting; he has elected to depict not the people who live ill,
but those whom he conceives as living well, proud of their body,
responsible to their instincts. In _A Soldier of Life_, notably, he
makes almost credible the regeneration of the 'ordinary' man. Still,
they are difficult to classify, these three; to reject their candidature
may be too much, so fine are their qualities; and yet, to inscribe them
upon the roll may be undue, for they have not the raw massiveness, the
air that one wants to find in boys, about to be men; they are too
particular, too much inclined to look away from the world and to
concentrate on some microscopic section. To enlarge without loosening is
no easy matter.

Lastly, and by himself, there is Mr E. M. Forster, who has been
forgotten a little in a hurry, because he has not, since 1910, felt
inclined to publish a novel; he is still one of the young men, while it
is not at all certain that he is not 'the' young man. Autobiography has
had its way with him, a little in _A Room With a View_, and very much
more in that tale of schoolmasters, _The Longest Journey_; but it was
_Howard's End_, that much criticised work, which achieved the
distinction of being popular, though of high merit. This marks out Mr
Forster and makes it likely that he can climb Parnassus if he chooses.
In _Howard's End_ Mr Forster surveyed the world in particular and also
in general; he was together local and cosmic; he was conscious of the
little agitations and artificialities of the cultured, of the upthrust
of the untaught and of the complacent strength of those who rule. Over
all, hung his own self as the wings of a roc darkening the countryside.
It is because Mr Forster has seized a portion of the world and welded it
with himself that the essence of him may persist and animate other
worlds. His attitude is one of tolerance; he prays that we may not drift
too far from the pride of body which is the pride of spirit. Mystic
athleticism: that seems to be Mr Forster's message; as it is essential
that the man of to-morrow should be a man of ideas as well as a man of
perceptions, it is quite certain that, if Mr Forster chooses to return
to the field, he will establish his claim.

One word as to women. The time has gone when we discriminated between
the work of women and of men; to-day, 'Lucas Malet,' Miss May Sinclair,
Mrs Sedgwick, Mrs Edith Wharton, Miss Violet Hunt, Miss Ethel Sidgwick,