HENRY JAMES ON IMMORTALITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 813, 10 May 1910, Page 5

HENRY JAMES ON IMMORTALITY.

"THE MOST INTERESTING QUES TION IN THE WORLD."

"It is something of an event in the intellectual world that so subtle and profound a thinker as the novelist Henry Jamos should have been prevailed upon to attempt an • answer. to tho' question, Is there a. life after death?

"He thinks it 'the most interesting question in the world/ says 'Current Literature.'

"Mr. James confesses (in 'Harper's Bazar') that in- his early days the question of immortality did not appeal to him. 'I was content for a long time to t let it alone, only asking that it should, ,in turn, as irrelevant and insoluble, let I me.' But as ho grew older tho question would not be side-tracked; it persisted in facing him with a 'mild but firm' refusal to regard' itself 'as settled; The change in his attitude he traces to the growth of spiritual consciousness. "The universe grows increasingly attaching to him. Thus, for Mr. James, living, or 'feeling one's exquisite curiosity about the universe fed and fed, rewarded and rewarded,' has become the highest good conceivable, 'a'million, times better than not -living.' - He continues:— "'lt is above all as an artist that I appreciate this beautiful and enjoyable independence of thought, and more especially this assault of the boundlessly multiplied personal relation (my own), which carries roe beyond even any 'profoundest' observations of this world whatever, and any mortal adventure, and refers mo to realisations 1 am condemned as "yet but to dream 0f,."