By ALGERNON BLACKWOOD
Illustrated by GRAHAM ROBERTSON. 6_s._
In this book Mr. Blackwood again takes for his theme Nature; and from
various points of view treats aspects of Nature--trees, snow, sea,
mountains, fire, sand, and so on--in their effect upon different human
beings. He seeks to interpret the powers of Nature as expression of
life, life similar to our own in kind though lesser in degree. As in
_The Centaur_, he develops this tenet of his imaginative creed--that in
all the universe there is nothing dead. Life hides even in so-called
inanimate things--latent, embryonic perhaps, but still life. Its link
with human beings is effected, moreover, through the subconscious
portion of men’s minds. Hence his protagonists in these stories usually
know that touch of deeper moods which most people dislike because they
deem it abnormal. For him, however, it means the awakening of the
subconsciousness, and is in the direction, therefore, of an extension
of life that need not necessarily involve unbalance.