The Cecil Whig., 1873-11-15

SIG WaltS linpdLlenIly lOF lne handsome
scout, the counterpart of her novel hero,
and when he puts in an appearance and
makes her life more than usually misera-
bic, we have murder, divorce. or some
other chapter added to the catalogue OF
crime, simply because she, reading a book
of which she was incapable of deciding
the merits, believed its pernicious teach
ings.
The origin of fiction was simply the
origion of literature. The Book of job,
most likely, is the oldest composition exist
ing, and the probabilities are that it is a
pure allegory. Homer was the Bible of
the Greeks, yet it is almost settled that it
is fiction. The story Homer tells may
have had its foundation in some remote
historical legend of a contest between the
Greeks and some Asatic people, but when
we find the gods coming down and con-
tending with each other and with men, we
cannot longer avoid the conclusion that we
are dealing with pure fiction, yet the lives
of Achilles, and of Ulysses are much less
problematcal than that of their author,
Homer.
In the Bible we early meet with those
fictitious narratives. 1t is an extension
and in some cases Il perversion Of the same
spirit that inspired Nathan's parable to
David and induced Christ to teach in para
bles that has given the world Milton
Paradise Lost" Bunyan's "Pilgrm's S
Progress" or Mrs. Stoves "Uncle Tom. -
and has filled our Sunday school libraries
with stories about "Tattered Tom, the
Ragged Newsboy,' and thousand other
equally interesting baby novels. 1t is
amusing to see the hate of some people for
novels. They deem Wilkie Collins or Mrs.
Craik emissaries of Satan, if not them
selves, the visible embodiments of the
powers Of evil; but the maudlin sentiments
of the stories their children carry home
from the Sunday school library is all right
they have Nelson IL Phillips or " Ameri-
can Sunday school Union on the title
page. Shakespeare asks, "What is in a
name?' A great deal. "Put Charles
Reade's "Terrible Temptation y in muslin
gilt with "American Sunday School
Union " on the title page, and it will be
welcome in the most strictly religious fam
lilies in the nation.
1t is impossible to estimate the effect
some works of fiction have had upon the
thought of the world. Millions epic com
ing to the world just at time when relig-
ious thought was passing through a revo-
luton, has done as much, perhaps more
than the Bible, to shape the popular opin-
ions of hell and Il personal devil. We
know little Of William Shakespeare; but
Shylock, Othelle and Macbeth will live as
long as the Avon rolls on to meet the sea.
There are few works of which the plan is
simpler than Bunyan's pilgrim, yet it has
become the worlds classic.
1t is his simplicity and his direct paint
ing of character, not as some unattainable
ideal, but as they really exist, that gave
Dickens his hold upon the public heart.
We find little of the handsome pirate in
his pages. His villains are painted in
truer colors, as witness his wretched Fagn.
Take Pecksnif, smiling cheat and hypo-
critic, and how many are there who cannot
point him out among their acquaintance.
Take the whole series of his works from
the time when he sent poor founding
into ha TO
the moment when the pen fell from his
hand while delineating the opium dreams
Of poor John Jasper, and there is scarcely
a character that we cannot recollect hav-
ing met somewhere. He may have been
libertine in character and infidel in relig-
ion, certainly there are facts in his life
that will not bear close inspection, but
his appeals for right and humanity. against
established precedent and hereditary wrong
will never die. The master hand that
drew them has mouldered back to dust,
but his creations still live aud go on to
nobler work.
''Strange that these day dreams of romance,
Phantasmal forms of man. s device.
Endure, while Gods own image melts
Like fast dissolving ice.
No spirit through their nostrils breathe,
No subtitle ichor fills their veins,
But still the unsubstantial throng
From age to age remains.
To these sublime realities
We are but shadows on the wall:
Scarce born to life ere snatched away
Beneath oblivion's pail.
Oh plastic art thy spell alone
The palm and fadeless amaranth gives,
The sculptor falls, the statue stands:
Sterne dies but Toby lives
Give US the solid manliness of Dickens,
the life sketches of Geo. Elliot or Mrs.
Craik and the world will be all the better
for their life and work. We are too will
ing to condemn the truly good for what
may be the fault of class with which
they have no sympathy. While we can
accept their teachings and hope that in
the future they will bring forth much fruit,
we need not accept the tide of sensational
ism that in many minds crowd really valua
BILE works out of sight. How many of the
minds that have become used to the stupid
inanities of the weekly press are capable
of apprecating the higher class of fiction
or of mastering the intricacies of histor