The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-08-25
LITERARY.
THE NOVEL IN MODERN LIFE.

Hi NOVEL IN MODERN LIFE.
The place of the novel in contem-
porary life is question that has not
received the attention it deserves. 1t
is easy to accept the assertion, undoubt
edlY true few years ago, that fiction is
one of the most potent influences in
modern civilization, and that multitudes
of men and women unconsciously take
their INyisws views of life and destiny rom it.
But few people who study the matte
carefully and lntelligently Will feel them
selves able now to accept this assertion.
The other day, at gathering of literary
men, gentleman who had ID his
young manhood been a voracious
reader of the great standard novels
declared that when he read these
novels now they utterly failed to please
him, much less TO influence his charac-
ter as they once had done. The most
powerful of them seemed to be little
better than more or less interesting
word puzzles, whose answers had little
bearing on the real life of to-day; and
he went on to explain this remarkable
change in his point OF view by saying
that modern life had become vastly
more interesting than any possible
transcript of 1t that could be made by
the novelist. If this is true of the old
school of romantic fiction, which
recognized no metes or bounds in the
portrayal of human life, it is much
more true of the modern realistic
school which appears to limit itself to
snap shots of aspects OF life that lie
Immediately on the surface.
That there is large measure OF truth
in this view of the matter will be
admitted by every one who looks with
clear eyes on the complex drama of
modern life. No novelist, however
gifted with imaginary insight or know
ledge of the world, can today hope to
draw true and lifellke picture of the
forces aud tendencies at work in
modern society. For many of these
forces and tendencies are impalpable
and invisible, even when they are most
powerful. An epic of human life,
whether it takes the form Of poem or
novel, that shall reach the heart by
its vivid truthfuness can only be written
in an age in which men are moved
irresistibly for good or evil by few
master passions, and IN which their
conduct Is modified by none of the
doubts and reservations that modern
progress has injected into the arena OF
thought. Human life as it is today, its
dissatisfaction with the old formulas,
its eager quest for new truths, its COM
plexity of aim and motive, its dim
consciousness that it is standing on the
threshold of mysteries soon to be laid
| bare, which will revolutionize its method
of thinklng-very little of this can be
| put into a book. And when book is
written in which the attempt is made,
the reader rises from its perusal with
the feeling that, after all. he has only
been following the movements of skill
fully constructed manikins. To under
stand real life, and feel its powerful
impulses, one must take part in it, and
not read about it.
1t is, perhaps, too much to assert, as
some do, that the novel of today Is
only written for, and appreciated by,
the 'fYoung Person" But the fact
must be admitted that the vocation OF
the modern preacher, has been PRO-
foundly influenced and modified by
the complex forces and tendencies that
are creating a new civlliz alton out OF
the old. The true teacher and molder
of secular thought today is not the
novelist with his collection of venerable
stage properties, but the scientific
investigator, who, with no desire fol-
glory or reward, spends his life as a
priest IN the temple of truth.