The Portland daily press., 1871-08-15
Sir walter Scott and the Modern Novel.
PORTLAND.


TO day is the one hundredth anniversary OF
the birth of Sir Walter Scott, and that eVfn'
will be celebrated wherever there are Enghsh
speaking people. This is due to MN oo'n
from his position of absolute emlnehce do
poet and especially as a writer OF hctlon, anu
from his being the first of that KinSY line
Fnolisb noyelists who have given fiction the |
ex allied place in literature which modern poetry |
has abandoned for unfruitful elegance or I'M |
inspired extravaganza and RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1t is
the novel of to-day, and not poetry or the dra-
ma that "hods the mirror up to nature, and
furnishes medium for the communication of
genius with mankind. If the nineteenth cent
uly has no poets, historians and speculative
philosophers of the very first rank, no preced
ing age can boast such name as Scott. Thack-
cray and Dickens in romance-names of men
VINO occupy the same relative place in their
art as Dante, Milton and Shakespeare occupy
III theirs, and whose prominence in literature
with that of physical investigators in philos-
ophy is the characteristic feature of modern
intellectual development. 1t is good sign of
That process of amelioraton which Tyndall
says has always been going on in the world.
We might say almost without extravaganza
that the novelists have done for morals what
Bacon did for philosophy-broughtt them down
from heaven to earth. The utilitalianism and
benefcent humaneness of modern civilization
are strikingly shown by the change from the
Stately epic, or the cold classic drama, written
Tor the intelligent aad prosperous few, to the
kind hearted romance, written for the millions.
None but fools write epics now. Carlyle. one
OF the lew men capable of such work, would
no more think of writing one than he would
OF initiating Upper, as reactionary as he is
Literature, with science, political economy and
all other things characteristic of this good
era in the worlds history, is thoroughly demo-
cratic. As science now occupies itself largely
with working to improve the material advan-
tages of tie masses, searching eagerly to find
the proper conditions of health comfort enjoy
ment and safety, so the typical fiction OF to-
day enforces right principles and benevolent
action on his people, and guards against the
spread OF moral contagion. How much better
moralist is Dickens than Dante or Milton
How much better is Thackeray than
Butter or swift! how much better are
Mrs. Stowe, Miss Muloch or George Eliot than
Pope!
NOR is the truth of our proposition that the
general spirit of modern fiction Is profoundly
ethical Overthrown because Reade. Miss Brad
don, the popular author of "Red as Rose is
She" and "Cometh up as a Flower" and
strangely enough, large number of other
women writers, have gained wide circula-
ton for the record of their filthy imaeinings.
or because Disraeli employs his Tory pen to
euloglze class privilege, an aristocracy OF
wealth, rank and the other accessories of
state of society that is happily passing away.
Walt Whitman and SwiLburne do not give,
the flavor of their denominations to modern
poetry, which is singulary pure, whatever
its weakness. Reade and the foul-minded
women who, without his dramatic genius or
even the power to initiate his style, belong to
MS school, are surely ephemeral. For the
contemporaries of Boccaccio, Rabelais. Bal
FAC, or fleldlng and Smollet succession of
raklsh adventures and amorous intrigues. if
elegance of style and an animated narrative
We're not wanting, was enough. But the peo-
pie of the nineteenth century, who are pre-
eminently readers of fiction, are not satisfied
even with the most brilliant dramatic ability,
They aciH have the moral element very prom-
nent, though they prefer that their novels
should not be formally didactic. This ele-
ment cannot be lacking in any author of this
age whose name is to live. Reade and his
school meet a large temporarydemand for Wei
Gus intellectual excitement. The same demand
will no doubt exist hereafter, but every pc
riod produces Its own fit writers to minister
TO it. No doubt the next generation will
ind some author with sufficient genius and
want OF principle to amuse it by jolting along,
now up the hill of passionate triumph and
now down into the valley of depression and
imminent danger, now up in fierce and sue
cessful pursuit of the qualification of some
irregular passion, and now down into the in
evitable contact with peril and suffering-so
hurrying along, up and down, up and down
with no limits to the writer's invention but
those imposed by the publishers as to the
length of the book. Some one will be found
to do this as well as Charles Reade, who there
upon will be forgotten.
But there will hardly be found those to
supplant Walter Scott. Certainly his two
great successors are as imperishable as HON.
er. In Dickens it is probable that there was
seen the elimination of this particular kind |
OF literary ability, and so great an impression |
did he make on his fellow men that the sun
has hardly yet come out from the Cloud that
his death last summer spread over the whole |
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