Allegory
itself, as an echo of one's thought, is often agreeable, and pleases
through surprise; yet it is apt to be confusing, and smothers the poetic
harmony. In his romances, Hawthorne escapes into a hugely significant,
symbolic sphere which relieves the reader of this partial vexation. "The
Celestial Railroad," of course, must be excepted from censure, being the
sober parody of a famous work, and in itself a masterly satirical
allegory. And in two cases, "Drowne's Wooden Image," and "The Artist of
the Beautiful," we find the most perfect imaginable symbolism. In one,
the story of Pygmalion compressed and Yankeefied, yet rendered
additionally lovely by its homeliness; and the essence of all artistic
life, in the other, presented in a form that cannot be surpassed. "Mrs.
Bullfrog" is a sketch which is ludicrously puzzling, until one recalls
Hawthorne's explanation: "The story was written as a mere experiment in
that style; it did not come from any depth within me,--neither my heart
nor mind had anything to do with it." [Footnote: American Note-Books,
Vol. II.] It is valuable, in this light, as a distinct boundary-mark in
one direction. But the essay vein which had produced some of the
clearest watered gems in the "Twice-Told Tales," begins in the "Mosses"
to yield increase of brilliance and beauty; and we here find, with the
gathering strength of imagination,--the enlarged power for bringing the
most unreal things quite into the circle of realities,--a compensating
richness in describing the simply natural, as in "Buds and Bird Voices,"
"Fire Worship," "The Old Apple-Dealer.
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