Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1850-08-08
TO that will by no means assent, as a

in the world than bad book of philosophy
and on the other hand, a good novel or tale will
accomplish more good than a grave, moral dis
QUESTION, care not how true may be its teach
ings.'
'Preposterous Such a position is an insult
to the human reason said Deacon Prescott.
'Oh, no. Not by any means. The moral
essay is cold enunciation of truths, but the
fictitious history not only declares the same
principles, but shows us their power in action.
1t takes hold Of our sympathies-it makes our
understandings clear by warming our affec-
tions.'
Precious few such histories are there y
said the Deacon.
Il think have something said the stranger
resuming, that will illustrate what have said
| met with a touching little story to-day, and
as fortunately have it with me, will, with
the permission of the company, read it, 1t
will take but very few minutes
All asked for the story but the Deacon, and
he did not object to its being read. The story
was brief, but earnest. Singularly enough for
the individual who read it knew nothing, as we
have already intimated. of the family affairs of
Deacon Prescott, it the history of a pa
rents estrangement from his child in conse
quence of her marrying in direct opposition to
his wishes. The struggles in the fathers
mind between pride and affection, between
the stern reasonngs with which he sustained
himself, and the tender appeals that his heart
made for his child, were finely portrayed ; and
the Deacon was startled at the picture of him
self so suddenly and Unexpectedly conjured up
before him. He sat and listened with the most
intense interest. To him it was no fiction, but
a veritable history, for he recognized its truth
in every line.
From description of the father unbending
spirit, the writer next turned TO the loving
child he had thrown from him with so rude a
hand that she had fallen to the earth. He
opened the door of her heart, and showed
the fathers image still there. He pictured
her as she really was, true TO her husband, yet
sad for the loss of a parents love, and yearn-
ing to lie again upon the bosom where her head
had rested in confding love since the early
dawn of childhood. He took the reader into
the chamber where she sat alone, blotting with
tears the paper upon which she was writing
an earnest appeal to her father to be taken
back into his Affections and then he showed
him the unrelenting and unforgvng old man,
as he spurned the tear-stained missive, and
sent it back unopened.
But the writer's end in composing this his
tory was to fill the heart with the blessed spirit
of forgiveness, and in the conclusion of his sto
nv, he introduced fitting combination of cir
cumstances to produce the effect desired-that
is, reconciliation of the father and daughter.
Now said the individual who had read the
finely-told story, addressing Deacon Prescott,
do you not see that picture like this would
have double the power over the heart of a ia
ther, who stood in such a relation to his child,
that any appeals to his reason that cold didac-
tics could makel Do you not
The speaker suddenly became silent, and
looked wonderingly at the individual he was
addressing The picture had come home to
Deacon Prescott with power that he could
not withstand. Fiction had done what reason
had failed to accomplish-it had softened his
heart towards his child, and set free the long
pent-up streams of affection. He started up
quickly, and to hide the emotion he felt, he
hurried away from the company, most of whom
understood what was passing i'll his mind.
Mary, or rather, Mrs. Baldwin, was sitting
alone, with sleeping babe on her lap, her
thoughts tracing in the delicate features of her
babes face likeness to her father, when there
came a tap at the door.
Come in
The door opened, and form, the least ex-
pected, came in hurriedly.
Father she exclaimed.
Mary my child' was responded in quiv-
ering voice.
A moment more, and the father and child
were in each others arms.
Since that happy hour, the old man has less
to say against works of fiction. He is not their
advocate, for old prejudices are still strong and
old habits of thinking confirmed. The fact of
their not being true is the stumbling block with
him. He cannot clearly discriminate between
writing a story and telling lie. They are
not true, is the mental position he takes. And
yet they are true, in the sense that the image
in the mirror is true-they are true reflections
of what occur in real life. Deacon Prescott
saw and knew himself in story, and perceiv-
ing what manner of man he was, put off the
evil that had so long clung to him, and made
himself and others unhappy for years. Hun
dreds and thousands In this world are benefited
in like manner. There is no calculating the
| amount of good that well-wrought fiction,
based upon true principles, may effect in the
world.
Those who, from narrow prejudice, would
blot this form of writing from the page Of liter
ature, are about as wise as a man would be if
he dashed mirror to pieces because it merely
reflected what was around it, instead of con-
tanning things within itself that it pictured to
the eye.
New MEXICO AND SLAvERY.-The consti-
tuition Just published "forever prohiblis sia-
f very" in the following manner, according TO
the first section
SEC. ]. All men being born equally Tree
and independent, and having certain natural
: Inherent and ipalie,a he rights amongst