The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-01-27
THE IDEAL NOVEL.

Professor Swing lectured at simmons Hail
Tuesday evening of last week, choosing as
his subject the caption of this report.
Tie ideal novel is the novel of the future
the novel as it should be-a book from which
has been taken all that which is bad. 1t
should be better than the novel of the past.
L would Lot decry the novel; neither would
place it at the summit of literature. The
proper way to stu y on art is to study It's
history. The merit of work of art may be
known by the number of ideas that are sug-
gested by it. The greater the number and
the nobler the ideas that are raised, the
higher is the work of art. Music is the most
tender, and literature the most powerful OF
the fine arts. Not thought, not feeling
but can be expressed in language, and Ian
guage is the mirror of the soul, portraying
the ideas oil the mind. Out of the idea OF
God comes The literature ofreligion. Out OF
the memory comes history. Man is the only
animal that remembers-the only animal
that looks back-the only one that has q
yesterday; and out of this power OF looking
back comes history. Out of the idea OF the
beautiful comes the novel. The sermon is
the poppy of literature containing the SOM
nolent principle, while the novel is the rose
| of literature-bright and beautiful. All the
fine al is come up out of the one idea-lhe
beautiful Woman is the talisman toat
holds up the novel as a fine art. woman
! the ideal woman-is the power that moves
the novelist; or as Tyndall would express ~
woman is the most potent dust. OF the nov
ell. woman is the ample apology, the reason,
the blossom shedding its fragrance over All.
/ The Greeks were the first to raise the rover
/ TO a fine art; and the first to raise woman
/ to an exact equality with man. from Inc
| fall Of Greece to the time of Michael Angelo,
woman was the slave, beauty fed ana Tue
novel disappeared. At the time OF Angelo
woman was again emancipated, beauty caLae
back to earth, and the novel re-appeareo'
Woman Is the decoration of the novel, the
center figure, the unity of the plot, shedding
her beauty over the whole work. In Dante s
! Inferno, Beatrice is the center. Though
j not seen in the first and second books, slls
the idea of her appearance is held out, lurDag
the reader on, until in the third she cons
j forth radiant with beauty, the ample rewlASd
4 for the tolls now past. Thus woman stands
as the center of one kind of literature; but IN
the novel of the future, woman will only be
the ornament. Like tne novels OF Richter
/ Aueibach, M'Donald, Thackeray, Dickens
Sue and Elliott, religion, philosophy, poll
tics. science, and reform will be the centra
Ideas. while woman will be the ornament
the shading, the light in the distance draw
ing the reader farther and farther into the
lnoyelist's reasonngs; and higher and higher
into his noble thoughts. Woman has always
been the embodiment Of The beautiful-mar
never. "No artist would ever ask me TO ST
for picture of the beautiful" All oul
ideas of the beautiful are associated witt
women: but still the further the novel gett
: from woman, the higher will be the work O
$ art. The beauties will come from all oVel
the earth and the sky, and woman will bt
the thread that shall bind them together
Love will not be the theme OF the BOOK
I only one of the incidents of it. The novels
: the future will be one of the means of edu
cation. Education is not the accumulation
, of facts, but the reception ofideas, the aWak
ening Of the spirit, the power to think and u
do. Every man starts out in life With broat
I1deas-with the intention of being broad anS
liberal in his ideas; but each gradual.
narrows down TO the track of his profession
/ Like the broad wagon road followed by tn
traveler in the forest which he found led tx
: a pile of wood, then became bride pain
and at last narrowed down to squire
track and went up tree. But Gods Worle
is always large, broad. grand, and all boune
together by the beautiful and bright.