The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-08
Literature and It's Influ-
enCe on Life.
S CONTINUED from Page Nine.)

none greater than those in literature,
which of all the arts stands closest to
the life of the people, expressing their
ideals and contributing to their spiritual
Joy. Literature is the highest OF the
arts, the most human and the most hui
name, more comprehensive than music
and more vivid and accessible than paint
ing. From literature comes a real joy
in the perception of things lucid, lumin-
GUS, symmetrical, sincere, passionate,
and profound, pleasure that restores
the heart and quickens it. makes it
stronger to endure the ills of life AMI
more fertile in all good fruit of cheer
fulness, courage and life. The three-fold
object of all literature is fully realized
in the English literature of the nine
teenth century, namely, to reveal life,
to show life as it is; to cheer and con-
sole life by opening door for us into
the realms of imagination and fancy; to
guide life, to furnish ideals of men and
women. These three objects in litera-
ture have been characterized by the
terms Realism. Romanticism and IDEAL
ism. While there has been no genius of
the very highest rank among the writer's
of the past century, like Dante, Shake
speare or Milton. there has been a
very remarkable group of men, galaxy
of stars shining from the heaven of art.
THE NOVELS OF SCOTT.
''The most popular form of literature
of the century is fiction. While the
novel had it's origin in the eighteenth
century the first great popular novelist
was Walter Scott, the King of the Ro-
nantes, who preserved in fiction the
character and life of his native land The
fact is that Scott was so actively identi-
fled with his country that we might well
think of it as Scotland. He conceived
of the novel as vivid and graphic pic
ture of human life drawn on a historical
background and has given us imperish-
able portraits of men and women He
gave to the world in his novels thou
sand years of intense living. He will
never teach you to admire anything that
is mean. He will hold up the ideals of
chivalry, so fondly cherished by the peo-
pie of the South. / trust that Southern
people will never lose that chivalric
reverence for woman and spirit of in
domitable courage, that have been the
admiration of the world ! would advise
you to read also Thackeray and Dickens,
those twin stars of the mic century.
Many of us know England through their
novels better than by trave1-the real
England that does not lie on the sur
face. There are many other novelists
that are worth your reading: George
Eliot, Kingsley, Cooper, Hawthorne, Poe,
In our own time there is a large number
of men in all parts of the world who are
lighting up the regions where they live
and letting us enter into the secrets of
our fellow men; in Scotland. Barrie,
Crockett, Maclaren; in England, Henry
James, George Meredith. Kipling; in
America a host of those with whose
names you are familior; in New Eng
land, New York, the West and the
South.
THE OBJECTS OF FICTION.
'tThe first object of fiction is to give
pleasure not to teach nor to moralize,
but to give pleasure through the magma
tion. l do not include in my estimate
the books that sell by the hundreds
thousand in dry good stores, but those
refreshing, invigorating stories that add
much to the 10y of life. Some people
read novels second hand. or retail the
gossip that is found in many of our
literary journals-literary peptonoids to
digest books for other people. The gen.
uine reading of fiction, however will
make our lonely hours cheerful; our
empty hour full; it will bring us into
companionship with men and women
whose lives are joy to us. Who has not
been strengthened by reading such novels
as Henry Esmond, or Lorna Doone?
Novels are becoming as powerful as SER
mons and the novelist reaches a larger
number of people than the preacher for
he reaches the people six days in the
week, and sometimes seven. while the
preacher IS heard but one.
"a second result that comes from fic-
ton is that sometimes social movements
are largely influenced by novels. What
ever may be your opinion of slavery you
must admit that Uncle Toms Cabin"
had much to do with arousing public
sentiment in the North. Whether it was
true or false in its presentation of the
life of those days men found in it
thoughts that breathed and words that
burned. Alton Locke and Felix Holt
have had influence in doing away with
industrial slavery, while Charles Reade
and Dickens have called attention in
terms of art to distressing social con-
ditions. If you have thought of fiction
as mere light literature you have not
considered it's great influence in the life
of the past century; it is easier to I'M
derestimate than to overestimate the
value of good fiction in the practical life
of the world.
''The last and greatest good that comes
from the reading of fiction is that our
human sympathies are enlarged, as We
come in vital contact with the reality,
beauty and pathos nf the lives of the
men and women of nction. Brotherhood
with men in dreams cannot take the
place of brotherhood with men in reality,
but it may prepare the way for the lat
ter. Fiction by revealing to us the life
that is independent of place or rank or
age lifts us out of sectionalism and
provincialism. When | who live in what
many consider provincial New Jersey
read the stories of Tom Page, l get be-
hind all the differences existing between
the people of my State and Virginia, to
the real human life of the people of
both sections. AS / read the stories of
Cable and Grace King l know how people
work, pray, suffer, rejoice in Louisiana,
independent of any dialect they may