But they supplied their author a
hard but needed discipline. They warned him against over-confidence and
routine work. He had passed through a soul-trying experience, in its
effect not unlike the one which Keats describes _a propos_ of
"Endymion:"
"In 'Endymion' I leaped headlong into the sea and thereby have become
better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks than
if I had stayed upon the green shore, took tea and comfortable advice. I
was never afraid of failure--would rather fail than not be among the
greatest."
Jonas Lie reconquered at one stroke all that he had lost, by the
delightful sea-novel "Rutland" (1881), and reinstated himself still more
securely in the hearts of an admiring public by the breezy tale, "Press
On" (1882). But after so protracted a sea-voyage he began to long for
the shore, where, up to date he had suffered all his reverses. It could
not be that he who had lived all his life on _terra firma_, and was so
profoundly interested in the problems of modern society, should be
banished forever, like "The Man Without a Country," to the briny deep,
and be debarred from describing the things which he had most at heart.
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