diers. Shakespeare takes the professional view for
granted. But Mr Kipling does not quite do that. There is a
continuously implicit protest in all Mr Kipling's soldier tales that a
soldier's killing is like an editor's leader-writing or a painter's
sketching from the nude--a protest which by its frequent over-emphasis
shows that Mr Kipling, not having Shakespeare's gift of intuition into
every kind of man, has not quite succeeded in identifying himself with
the soldier's point of view. It is always present in his mind as
something novel and surprising, needing insistence and emphasis.

This is equally true of all Mr Kipling's essays in brutality. His
ferocity is as forced as his tenderness is natural. Violence and war
are clearly foreign to his unprompted imagination. Only it happens
that Mr Kipling has talked with soldiers; and, like Eustace Cleever, he
is prompted occasionally to spend a perversely riotous evening in their
company. The literary result is far from being contemptible; but it is
far from being as precious as the result of his unprompted intrusion
into the country of the Brushwood Boy, into Cold Lairs and the Council
Rock.

The soldier tales rank not very far above the tales from Simla. Their
interest is mainly the interest of watching a skilled writer
consciously using all his skill to give an air of authenticity to
things not vitally realised. Mulvaney is pure convention, and
Ortheris, though he more individually belongs to Mr Kipling, is rather
an effort than a success. We have not yet got at the heart of Mr
Kipling's work. It yet remains to cross the barrier which divides some
of the best journalism of our time from literature which will outlive
its author.

VI

THE DAY'S WORK

When we come to _The Day's Work_ we are getting very near to Mr Kipling
at his best. We should notice at this point that in all the stories we
have so far surveyed the men have mattered less than the work they do.
The great majority of Mr Kipling's tales are a song in praise of good
work. Almost it seems as if, in the year 1897, their author had
himself realised the significance of this; for it was in that year he
published the volume entitled _The Day's Work_; and it was the best
volume, taking it from cover to cover, that had as yet appeared.

The first and best story in _The Day's Work_ at once introduces the
theme which threads all the best work of Mr Kipling. _The
Bridge-Builders_ is the story