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

el calls all ideas of NIL arts to its
aid, its very compositoness roAeoting
tho necessities of high culture ex-
listing and requiring it, in its reorea.
tions of fancy and Imagination, and
indicates n high effort of art in writ
ing to supply this demand. Second,
wo would call the novel "the philoso.
ply of domestic life" to give it its
distinctive feature in literature
History is tho philosophy of ma
tion's life-a description Of tho body
politic and the march of empire. AS
to the phase of interest it assumes, it
is very much dependent on tho power
and philosophic pen of tho historian {,
! otherwise it would be d bare recital of
dates, actions and events, as uninter.
esting as Homer's catalogue Of tho
ships. The chronicle of revolutions,
law, liberty and man as he belongs to
society, much is left to Inference, much
to speculation of tho author, and we
are biassed as tho advocate is power
full.
Biography, as general thing, is
either q history Of tho times in which
m actor lives q pedantic recital of
his or her attainmcnts; or story
drawn from letters, romans, &c.,
which gives us as impartial an esti-
mate of u man rs Scott or Abbott in
their lives of Napoleon. If written
by friends We SEQ only the good, tho
evil lies buried, and wo read the lives
of no frail men, while wo know tho
inconsistency of human nature from
st. Peter to the present hour. Who
has read tho impartial life Of an indi-
vidual.
Where then do we get fair view
Of the fine side of people portrayed.
The faults and foiblos of the indivi.
dual in private life, his greatness, his
Joys, his sorrows, his happy laugh, his
hollow sneer, his heart brimful Of
charity, or his brow scowling with
suspicion, malioe and envy, or flushed
with wrath? Where do We see him,
by tho cosy fire with lisping inno-
cence around him in the street, in
the church, in the ballroom, in the
sick chamber, in storms when the evil
king Is abroad OH the winds, in tho
valleys green, or standing on noun
tain top with tho breath Of heaven in
his glowing 1f.oe while morn comes
| "Furrowing aY tho oriont with pearl"
at the cradle or by the graveY In
these and many other scenes from ma
ture painted in prose, where, we re-
peat, do wo find this gap in literature
| filled up, but in the novel2
Not less true because drawn
from the imagination, sinoo it con-
forms to that ideal, truth, abstraoted
from the concrete mass of human
knowledge, and equally true with his
tory, because one Is the philosophy of
individual life as painted by genius,
and the other is the philosophy of
nations life as painted by genius, We
do not know but that great novelist
is superior to the nero annalist and
many historians, both in truthfulness
and the original creative powers he
has to exercise. The one studies tho
human heart as the motive power in
the machinery Of government the
other gives inner workings as, husband
and wife, paront and child, master
and servant, brother, sister, lover.
orfriend.. The historian g:7as rough
geographical or architectural features
of the world. The novelist, the boau.
tics Of scenery, tho flashes Of jewelry,
the. pictured pomp of palace. Iiuts,
hamlets, saloons, cities. We soc the
frctted ceiling and hear tho solemn
ceremony of the cathedral, with voic-
es sweet, riding on the swelling tones
Of the organ or else by somo poor
but happy hearth,
"Thoy chant their arlloss notes in simple
guise,
They tunc their hcarts by far tho noblest
MIN,
Perhaps Dundcc's wild warbling measures
rise 4h5.e sk. q. t~.E.s.H
Or plaintivo martyrs worthy Of the
name."
The drama holds domain perhaps
moro powerful, but certainly more
eireumscribed, by its necessary divis~
ions Of acts and scenes, and tho peri-
phernalia of music, dress, painting,
scenery and actors to give it its high
est effect. Any good novel may be
oramatlzeu Wnlle Du6 poor tale
could be only drawn from the beat
dramatic effort if stretched to the
usual Dimensions Of the novel. On
the contrary rneagre tale IL capable
of being turned into o splondid play
as accomplished by Shakespeare. Un.
restrained by metre and rhyme of
poetry it is free in detail and capable
Of length without sameness. Wo con-
tend, therefore, that as q work Of art
it's domain is distinct and it's niche in
tho temple of fame al exalted as any
other effort when placed there by go,
MUS d,
"sprlning up from crystal to orystal step,
In the brigha eE whore mono can follow
l. 80 him. 1G 5,# lttgt E,(g4s,
The Instruments chiefly used in the
novel are love and death. Love is