The Novels and Tales of Henry James; The Tragic Muse Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...far aloft with the cool distance and the night. Our young men, fantasticating as freely as I leave the reader to estimate, crossed the wide short bridge which made them face toward the monuments of old Paris--the Palais de Justice, the Conciergerie, the holy chapel of Saint Louis. They came out before the church, which looks down on a square where the past, once so thick in the very heart of Paris, has been made rather a blank, pervaded however by the everlasting freshness of the vast cathedral-face. It greeted Nick Dormer and Gabriel Nash with a kindness the long centuries had done nothing to dim. The lamplight of the old city washed its foundations, but the towers and buttresses, the arches, the galleries, the statues, the vast rose-window, the large full composition, seemed to grow clearer while they climbed higher, as if they had a conscious benevolent answer for the upward gaze of men. "How it straightens things out and blows away one's vapours--anything that's done " said Nick; while his companion exclaimed blandly and affectionately: "The dear old thing " "The great point's to do something, instead of muddling and questioning; and, by Jove, it makes me want to " "Want to build a cathedral?" Nash enquired. "Yes, just that." "It's you who puzzle me then, my dear fellow. You can't build them out of words." "What is it the great poets do?" asked Nick. " Their words are ideas--their words are images, enchanting collocations and unforgettable signs. But the verbiage of parliamentary speeches-- " "Well," said Nick with a candid reflective sigh, "you can rear a great structure of many things--not only of stones and timbers and painted glass." They walked round this example of one, pausing, criticising, admiring and discussing; mingling the grave...