The theme is certainly as deep as that of the earlier ones, and
more tangible to the general reader than that of "The Marble Faun"; it
is also more novel than that of "The Scarlet Letter" or even the "Seven
Gables," and has an attractive air of growing simply and naturally out
of a phenomenon extremely common in New England, namely, the man who is
dominated and blinded by a theory. And the way in which Hollingsworth,
through this very prepossession and absorption, is brought to the ruin
of his own scheme, and has to concentrate his charity for criminals upon
himself as the first criminal needing reformation, is very masterly.
Yet, in discussing the relative positions of these four works. I am not
sure that we can reach any decision more stable than that of mere
preference.
There is a train of thought suggested in "Blithedale" which receives
only partial illustration in that story, touching the possible identity
of love and hate. It had evidently engaged Hawthorne from a very early
period, and would have made rich material for an entire romance, or for
several treating different phases of it. Perhaps he would have followed
out the suggestion, but for the intervention of so many years of
unproductiveness in the height of his powers, and his subsequent too
early death.
It was while at West Newton, just before coming to the Wayside, that he
wrote a note in response to an invitation to attend the memorial meeting
at New York, in honor of the novelist, Cooper, which should be read for
its cordial admiration of a literary brother, and for the tender thought
of the closing sentence.
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