The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1903-03-12

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Not satisfied with making England
great, prosperous, honored and feared,
they wished to make her religious, and
succeeded in breeding race of hypo-
critics such as the world never saw be-
fore, and it is to be hoped will never
see again. Well, Oliver Cromwell final
ly died and after him came the deluge.
Charles II. assembled the throne, and
for fifty years England was a saturn
ALA. Literature, as we'll as everything
else, was affected by the reaction for
more than century, and was barely
recovering when the above mentioned
reversal of popular feeling occurred.
A second charge has been that novels
are untrue to life. A bold charge. Is
it true? Let us look for minute.
The writer's object is, as rule, to pre-
sent to us some phase of life, rectify
some abuse or teach some lesson, and
while certain incidents may be purely
imaginative, certain characters not in
esse, yet if the story be true to life it is
nevertheless the Truth. Is "Uncle
Toms Cabin" true or false? The world
answered that question long ago. And
there are score of other books which
have had as much influence for good
as "Uncle Toms Cabin" and they are
all pure fiction.
Another objection is that many of
the incidents in novels are most i'm
probable, if not impossible. Such objec-
tors appear to have forgotten the pro-
verb, "Truth is stranger than felton,"
and that no dream of the opium eat
ing De Quincy has equaled the life
experiences of men of the present day.
There is still another objection often
advanced, that novels are harmful to
young people because they are full of
love stories and because there is 9
woman at the beginning, middle and
end. Be it SO! assert that what they
claim to be great fault in the novel
is its greatest glory. No novel would
be- true to life, whether of the first or
ten thousandth century, without love
story in it. Where is the man or woman
who has not golden thread of romance
running through his or her life? There
is none. In life there is always two
man in it," and if the same occurs in
book is it not true to life? What is
the novel today? What the women Of
yesterday made it. Truer words were
never penned than the following:
They say that man is mighty.
He rules DER land and sea,
And sways mighty sceptre
Ger lesser powers that be;
But mightier hand and stronger
Man from his throne has hurled,
And the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
And now as to the function of novels.
The historical novel has banished time
and distance in series of panoramic
views. Through its agency we are en-
abled to view the past in all its living
reality: we are taken by the hand and
led to the homes of our forefathers,
there to sit at hospitable boards, par
take of their fare, hear their hearty
laughter and see their quaint dress; we
are present at baptism and wedding
and follow them to their long home.
In fact the historical novelist has re-
versed the deeds Of the magicians of
old: the latter bade their clients look in
glass and behold the future; the
former holds up his glass and we see
the past in all its living reality.
Novels of travel and adventure serve
the cause of geography and natural
history as the historical novel serves
the cause of history. Young people
today gain a better idea of the world
and the animal and vegetable inhabit-
ants thereof through such books than
through text books.
Some novels of life aud character are
great teachers. Who can read "ROm-
OLA, for instance, without realizing
the dread consequences of tampering
with conscience? Or who can read
"The Scarlet Letter" or "The Silence OF
Dean Maitland" without shudder at
the awful retributive punishment of
conscience? Suchsworks are more eff
| ficacious than thousands of sermons
and result in far more good.
| The abuse of novels lies in the fact
that too much such reading, like too
much candy or too much OF any good
thing, is harmful. Candy is very agree
able at times, but is poor food to
train on. We need for the brain as for
the body, food that will make US stall
wart-that will make us think.
A word regarding sensational nov
els, those works that pander to the AMI
NAL passions, making vice appear at
traetive and scoffing at virtue. Shun
such, no matter how entertaining they
NAV be. Shun them as you would the
/ tabled upas tree, for, like that tree, all
/ who come in contact with such books
risk moral and intellectual death.
8, D.