The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-29
MODERN WRITER'S.
The Novel: It's Province, Its Uses
and Its Benefits.
1T is A GOOD MIRROR OF SOCIETY.
A Moral Teacher and One of the Best Re
forming Forces of the Day-An
Interesting Paper.

has been so highly comD-imented, we take
pleasure i'll presenting it in full
THE NOVEL: ITS PROVINCE AND USE.
The novel is the mirror of society. In its
present form it had its birth two centuries
ago. and took its tone from the society for
which it was written. England was at
that time in the height of her reaction
against the austerity of Puritanism. Her
society was profigate, licentious, bias
phemous: without moral standard, with
out truth, without faith. Novels like
"Clarissa Harlowe,' written to amuse the
idle hours of fine ladies and perfumed
courtiers breathed the spirit of the age.
The light literature of that time was char
acterzed by Macaulay as Ia nuisance aud
national Disgrace
The best thought was put into parlia
mentary speeches; into sermons and
lectures: into the drama which reached the
height of its glory one hundred years be
fore. People talked. The lecture-hall and
drawing room were powers in society. AS
the number of printed books increased, and
the ability to read became more common,
more of the best thought was put into pub
lished form Scientists, philosophers,
theologians wrote voluminOus and learned
treat;ses But these were for the scholars
Even in the time of the England revolution,
200 years ago. lady who could read was
looked upon as prodigy of learning, and
fashionable gentlemen spelled like
washerwomen' But where population
has increased ten to one, readers have
multiplied one hundred to one. 1t is rare
now to find an adult who cannot read. The
audience of the best thinkers is not limited
by countries or by time.
We are a generation Of readers. No
field of thought is closed to us. Science,
art, history and theology becomes the
fashion. and is studied, read and discussed.
But we are also busy people. Whether
it is as Gladstone asserts III his review OF
''Robert Elsmere," that we can stop to take
in a new doctrine only as a recreation: or
whether this more vivid style, this
emotional. pulsating, soul stirring entity
appeals more strongly to the mind, i'm
presses itself more deeply upon the CON
seriousness, certain it is that we are a novel
reading generation We are people
strung up to intensest activity, but i'm
pressed by personality, sWayed by feeling
as the planets in their orbits by the attrac
ton and repulsion of their fellows. l 0
The novel as the mirror of society is the
chief accessory and aid of the historian. 1t
is history made to live, move and speak
Scott. in our own century, was perhaps
the first to recognize this. First and
essentially ii historian, he claimed for his
novels "a rank with history. Until then no
claim so high had ever been made for them.
They were beneath the notice of the most
profound writer's History, even the most
brilliant, creates need it cannot satisfy.
Perhaps the better it is as history the
stronger the need is felt-for it is need
revealed rather than created; the desire to
know the inner life, the thought and feel
ings of the people in whom we have became
interested. The novel alone can supply this
need. History takes its devotee into the coun
try towns and leads MIN through the streets
of great cities, into public halls and coffee
houses. shows him people in public dress
and holiday attire; but only the novel can
uen+l.,it,. with nun into their homes, voice
their thoughts, analyze their feelings and
reveal their secret motives.
10 the luteugenJ reader the countries
of the world are no longer represented by
straight and crooked lines and the cities
by dots. as in his map-drawing days: but
unrOll before him a vast panorama OF plain
and hill. valley and mountain, river and
sea, dotted with peaceful villages and pop
ulous cities, adorned with palace,
minaret and tower and filled with busy
life. He visits New England with
Stowe and Burnett. sits in the calm
HI sh of her Puritan Sabbath, ana
learns love as well as respect for her rigid
and aastere life; he fingers in the south
WIFI SdDlC but SO1b : ulO1A 14S VI bAAS oOuIA4
ern speech making music in his ears; learns
of Helen Hunts sympathy for the Indian
in his western Businesses and interest IN
the English governess through the suffer
ings of Jane Eyre and Mary Pinch He
becomes familiar with the dialect and home
life of the Prairie States through Eggles
ton, with Russian thoughts through Tolstol,
and with English parish life In the pages OF
Mrs Ward; feels his heart melt with pity
at the sufferings of Jean Jaques and the
street gamins of Paris, and learns to for
get race prejudice at the feet of Uncle
TOM" is introduced to England's high life
by Gladstone and Lytton, and to the com
mon people by Dickens and Elliott. He
finds the minutest details of daily life de
picted in the writings OF Howells and
Black, to the number of pancakes with but
ter and sugar between which Miss Annie
ian old maid, by the way had for her sup
per: then plunges with Haggard and Stev-
enson into the realms of fancy, where caves
of buried treasures wait the fortunate ad
venturer, and personal identity is dCffad
like a garment. Never was an age so
''written up"
To him who reads, the world pays trib
ute. However humble his station in life,
however poor his surroundings, he holds
the open sesame to courts and palaces. For
him the door of cottage and noble stands
aiar. He wanders as he will through green
valleys or wide plains, in crowded city
streets or silent country lanes; communeS
with nature or holds converse with natures
MODEST minds; delves into the mines of
truth and brings forth rich gems of thought
or scales the rugged mountain side and
sweeps his gaze over the universe.
The novel not only mirrors for us current
life. but reaches back into the past-touches
with its magic finger the dust of the pyra-
mids and it is imbued with life. The
Pharohes speak. Their ancient palaces and
gardens CLEAN and bloom again in story;
the tombs OF centuries yield up their dead
to breathe and live anew.
But we can claim more. The novel IS to
day more than vivifed history, past or
present. Writers, as far beyond Scott as
he was beyond his predecessors, have raised
it to higher level. 1t is moral teacher
one of the most reforming forces of the
day. Through it the best thought OF the
day finds access to the popular mind. Men
and women of broad natures and strong
minds. the leaders and teachers of the
world of thought, filed with zeal for man,
and inspired as truly as the writers of old,
use it to PROFOUND truth, to raise ideals, to
propagate new faiths. to allay old preiu
dices. to produce revolutions. The grand
embodiment of truth and principle to be
found in the works of Dickens. Thackeray
and Elliott-personifcatiO of character
Issues as wei dS Representations u AuCn anu
things-essays,t treaties, sermons into which
| I powerful personality has breathed the
breath of life-blow after blow hurled at
the selfishness, wickedness and avarice of
the world have transformed the novel from
a superficial time-killer, from mere acces
sorry. into one of the most powerful forces
operating in this century
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