The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1869-09-29


known in England before the last cen
tury, and how it is now spread, we
can appreciate the magnificence of it's
domain. Let us then, while the dia-
mond dust of human knowledge is
| gliding through the hour-glass of
/ Time, endeavor to catch one little
grain, the modern novel, and examine
it's crystal radiance in the light of
art, before. we let it 60 to sparkle on
and cheer the eyes Of other centuries.
Fiction may be. divided into lst.
Northern or Gothic. 2d. Southern
or CLASSIC. Sd. d.eOfiental. 4th. The
Mixed. NHosthe' fret division may be
referred Goethe, Foquet, Wieland,
Kotzbue, Schiller, Wolpoles' Otranto,
and Miss Rado)iff's writings. The
The lays of Milton, Homer, Virgil,
Racine, Dante, are classic. The Ara
bian Nights, the Sacred Hebrew Poe
try, Moorc's Lala Rook, are oriental,
while the mixed may be found in
Shakespeare and the novels.
Shakespeare ia his Hamlet, Rome 0
and juliet, Midsummer Nights Dream
and Historic Dramas, manifests tho
master in every field Of fiction and
the novel likewise, tramps with elastic
tread to and fro this ''ield of the
cloth of gold," dressed out in oil it's
foreign as we'll as splendid natural
adornme nts, under the plastic powers
Of Scott, Bulw cr, Dickens, Thackeray,
and host Of others.
1t is then to "The Mixed" in fic-
tion We would refer The novel, and, by
novel, we mean no fairy or hob.gob-
lin tale. No romance of good King
Arthur or Charlcmangue. No single
horseman effusion, but scenes drawn
from manners, domestic life and ma
ture, the author holding up the mir
rer aud re ilecting truth from his pages.
An uunaturally beautiful. and inter-
estiag heroine who steps her parts a
puppes has no charm for US, and an
abstruse p Philosopher for hero,
whose vernacular is Greek Hebrew or
S8yriac, and who gives one lectures on
Botany, Entomology, Psychology and
Social PHYSICS is u soporific pedaut
when he is not an iusufferable bore.
We read novel for delight not for
instruction. Thore is the sentimental
or siohly class, would immerse us in
sentiment and love. In such, see an
Alonzo, about to address his Laura
sweetness, after long sgonizcd
"eourse Of true love which never did
run smooth,3 sweeping down on his
immaculate victim with tornado of
passion until with an osculation, matri-
mony Gin futuro" closes the oxtatio
natural scene. There is the diluted
style Of novelist drawing out "in link
ed sweetness" Il good idea TO such at
tenuation that the drop of the honey
Of IFybla pals from its insipidity,
with speciality for trif1ing detail, mi
croscopic in memory, in murder
scene would stop to enlighten US by
an intricate disGuisition on the color
and pattern Of the schintz curtains
which hung at the windows, and the
piece Of the Ratchet with which the
deed was done. In painting Croln-
well, would devote their whole art to
the wart GU his nose. Sublime are
they on crcaking wheel and weeping
over drowning Fly,
There is tho transceadentaf or OBJ.
scure who do a deal Of Gno writing
with not deal of sense. For in.
stance, q painter is described as stsee-
ing partially, slightly, tenderly, catch
es the flying light Of things, the mo-
mentary glooms, could feel his
strength coming from white snows afar
off in lIeaven." Pages of such
"wordy afeetation" adorn their works.
The inofPensive or proper novelist, an.
other class, present US invariably, as
Thackeray has it, "Prince Pretty
man, who OF the end of his adven-
lures, is put in possessfon of every
worldly prosperity as he has been en-
dowed with every mental and bodily
excellence previously" Their heroes
are titled and their hepoiues, "Fault-
lily faultless, icily regular, splendidty
null, dead perfection"
/ These are few Of the multitude
the brainless effusions Of whose prolific
pens are fast slipping into oblivious
somnolence IN 'sthat undiscovered
country" in literature, "from whose
bourne no traveller returns" Turn
with US from these false ringing metals
to the delineation of Ideal Truth, as
embodied in fction--to she English
| Novel, as it commenced with DeFoe,
or moro correctly with the Spectator
in the characters of Sir Roger De-
Coverly, Sir Andrew Freeport, Cap
tain Sentry, and Will Honey comb, as
it brightoned with "tranquil virtuo,"
in tho "Vioar of Wakefield" and was
purified by Francis B;;rnsy and Rich
ardson, from the dross of tho kind
hearted Fielding, the numerous Smol-
let and Sterne with his foolery and
wit; As it shone with the sunshine of
! Heaven under the hand Of the objee-
tive Scott; as it glowed with passion
in the poetic prose Of the subjective
Rulwer. as it, spaueled with the triv;-