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diff --git a/24704-8.txt b/24704-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c517f94 --- /dev/null +++ b/24704-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1034 @@ +Project Gutenberg's On the Vice of Novel Reading., by Young E. Allison + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Vice of Novel Reading. + Being a brief in appeal, pointing out errors of the lower tribunal. + +Author: Young E. Allison + +Release Date: February 27, 2008 [EBook #24704] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE VICE OF NOVEL READING. *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + +Unpublished-- +Author's Private Copy. + + + + + On the Vice of Novel-Reading. + + + _BEING A BRIEF IN APPEAL, POINTING OUT_ + + _ERRORS OF THE LOWER TRIBUNAL._ + + + + + _Paper Read Before the Western Association of Writers at Winona_ + + _Park, Indiana, June 29, 1897._ + + + + + By YOUNG E. ALLISON. + + + + + LOUISVILLE. KY.: + + COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING COMPANY. + + 1897. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: YOUNG E. ALLISON] + +ON THE VICE OF NOVEL READING. + + +Ever since the Novel reached the stage of development where it was +demonstrated to be the most ingenious vehicle yet designed for +conveying the protean thought and fancy of man, there has stood in the +judgment book of Public Opinion the decree that novel-reading was a +vice. Of course, that judgment did not apply exclusively to the +reading of novels. It was a sort of supplementary decree in which the +name of this new invention was specifically added to the list of moral +beguilements against which that judgment had anciently stood. Poetry, +the Drama, even the virtuous History, had had their noses disjointed +by this tribunal. But their great age and the familiarity of their +presence had softened the decree in its enforcement. The Novel was a +young offender in aspect (though he had the nature and inheritance of +the other three), and was, besides, strong in masculinity and +virility. A certain sympathy thus sprung up for the three quaint old +ladies, as for old offenders whose persistence had won the wink of +toleration. They actually achieved a certain factitious respectability +in comparison with the fresher and more active dangers afforded by the +Novel. But the Novel was simply a combination of all three, more +flexible and adaptable. It, therefore, merely shares in the old +judgment directed against everything in literature--and in all the +arts--that displays the seductiveness of fancy or taste. The judgments +of public opinion have been consistently in the line of distrusting +and discrediting everything that appeared to be purely spiritual and +intellectual, and that could not at once be organized into a political +or religious institution or into a mechanical industry with the +prospect of large sales and quick profits. + +Novel-reading is a vice, then, under this judgment, just as the +reading of all fictions, fancies, inventions, and romances in all +their forms, poetic, dramatic, and narrative. And if the reading is a +vice the writing of them, in all common sense, can be no less than +murder or arson. If it is a vice to devote time to the reading of +novels it must be a crime to professionally pander to and profit by +the vice. And if all this is true, what a wonderfully attractive +corner that must be in Hades where are old Homer and the ever young +Aristophanes, Sophocles and Ęschylus, Dante, Virgil and Boccaccio, +Shakespeare and Moliere, Goethe and Hugo, Balzac and Thackeray, Scott +and Dumas, Dickens and that wonderful child of Bohemia, who lately lay +down to rest on Vailima mountain. Think of all these marvelous eons of +genius gathered together for their meet punishment! In one especially +warm corner, perhaps, Lope Felix de Vega, the most incorrigible of +all, slowly expiating upon some most ingeniously uncomfortable +gridiron the 1,160 volumes of crime and vice that are to be set down +against him in the indictment, if it be a true bill. We may wonder +whether the unknown authors of "Esther" and "The Song of Songs" and +the psychological novel of "Job" are there, too, where they properly +belong. It must be a great congress with these chief criminals as the +senators and a lower house made up of the most agreeably vicious souls +of earth, who, in their sojourn here, yielded for a moment to siren +voices. If everything in fiction--from the astonishing conspiracies +overthrown by "Old Sleuth" to the magnificent visions that old John +Milton saw, of incarnate ambition like a branded criminal driven out +before the radiant hosts of heaven--if all the fiction that makes up +the spirit of the novel is included in this _index expurgatorius_ of +eternity, then we may well have a doubt, my friends, whether hell can +hold us all. + +It is a curious exercise for persons immersed in writing and study as +an occupation, and possessing a catholic tolerance for all +occupations, to hark back to the time when they were still within the +jurisdiction of the world that acts but does not study. In all the +average towns, hamlets and country-sides of the world human nature +beats with exactly the same pulse. If a change come, it comes slowly +and it changes all together, so that all are still alike. In the small +towns novel-reading has been considered about as contemptuously as +playing the fiddle, though admitted to be less dangerous than family +card-playing. It was estimated that a novel-reader was confirming his +indolence, and in danger of coming to the poor-house; a fiddler was +prophesied to get into jail for vagrancy or larceny; while a +card-player had entered a path that might lead as far as the gallows +and comprehend all the crimes. This opinion still largely exists in +towns and country-sides. We find it maintaining itself even in large +cities, among all sorts of very good people, even among the most +exceptional men of business, of the professions and of the pulpits. +Novel-reading, as a mental vice, according to this opinion, may be +compared with opium-eating as a moral vice. It is thought to enervate +and corrupt by means of a luxurious excitement, purely fictitious and +temporary. + +At an annual meeting of members of the public library of a large city, +the librarian read the aggregate number of calls for books of each +class during the year. Let us assume that there were calls for 65,000 +works of fiction, 5,000 of history and biography, 2,000 of science and +philosophy, and, say, 75 of theology. One of the trustees, who had +pretentions as to responsibility for the public conscience that would +have dwarfed the pyramid of Cheops, arose and appealed to the members +to suggest a plan for counteracting the deplorable tendency of the +times to the reading of fiction. It did not occur to anybody to +recommend the abolition of the printing press, and so a discussion +began. One of the most distinguished and scholarly ministers and +educators of the world, who was a member, came to the rescue of the +Novel. He said, in substance, that the large majority of the men and +women in the world were laborers for the bread they ate, and it was +his opinion that when such persons were resting after the day's toil, +indulging their leisure, it was impossible to expect them to read +works on theology and the abstruse sciences, while it was natural for +them to seek amusement in novels and romances. He thought reading +novels was much better than idle gossip, or loitering in saloons or in +the streets. His remarks were received with great applause, and this +declaration of his liberality of opinion was widely commented upon. + +But is there any real liberality in considering the reading of novels +as only just a better use of one's leisure than gossiping, guzzling in +saloons or wandering idly about the streets? + +The idea that novel-reading has no value except as a relaxation and +amusement is born of the same dense and narrow ignorance which +concludes that alcoholic drinks and wine serve no real purpose but to +promote drunkenness and wife-beating; that opium promotes only +luxurious debauchery, and that all the elegant, graceful and beautiful +ceremonies and customs of society are invented merely to amuse and +gratify the vain selfishness of the rich. + +The most curious aspect of novel-reading, considered as a vice, is +that the great majority of those indulging in it, like those who +indulge in drinking, gambling and other vices, are themselves willing +to admit that it is indefensible if less perilous than other vices. +They excuse it, just as the distinguished minister did, as an +amusement so harmless, as compared with other vices, that you may +indulge it and yet skirt hell-fire by a margin of a million miles. +Some hypocrites conceal and deny the indulgence like your secret +toper; others apologize for not indulging when they are in the company +of notorious but pleasing offenders, as the hypocrite feigns +benevolence. Every one of you doubtless has in mind the amiable man of +business--maybe your tailor, your broker, your banker, your lawyer, +your grocer--who cultivates your good opinion, and for the sake of the +customer in you tolerates lightly the doubtfulness of your employment. +He will even introduce the subject of books as a respectful and +diplomatic concession to your heresies--much as all of us humor +lunatics amiably and curiously, by broaching the subject of their +delusions. He is tolerant because of fat success; his income is large, +he spends it in a fine house, full of costly adornments, of which he +has no knowledge except in the measure of cost and the correctness of +their usage; he has equipages, and gives dinners and sits securely in +Abraham's bosom of society. He pays you the deferential compliment of +asking what books you are reading. It maybe you are just out of the +profound philosophical complexities and pathetic problems of "Les +Miserables." Perhaps you have immersed yourself again in the paradoxes +of "Vanity Fair," or have been pumping up the flabby tires of your +better nature with the fresh air of "David Copperfield." It is +possible that "Tess of the Durbervilles," or "A Window in Thrums" has +been newly received, and has been enlightening your mind and +conscience as to your relations to the world about you. Whatever it +has been, you suggest the fact. + +"It is a novel?" He replies doubtfully: + +"Certainly," you respond with enthusiasm. "A masterpiece." + +"Well," protests the amiable Philistine, "I have--so little time--for +_amusing_ myself, you know. My daughter, now, she is a great +novel-reader. She buys a great many novels. Last year I read a book +called "The Greatness of Our Country." It is a wonderful book. It said +in that book that the United States could support a population of +400,000,000. I had no idea of that before. I asked Prof. So and So +about it and he said why not: that China had 400,000,000 people. It is +surprising what we learn from books," etc., etc., etc. + +This man has got one bald statistical suggestion in his head out of a +book that is made to sell on trains. He recognizes it. It recalls +dimly mathematics which he was taught at school. It is a concrete +suggestion; it requires no effort to understand or remember. It is so +wonderful to him that he has no time to amuse himself with the heart +allegories and the practical questions of the condition of those +possible 400,000,000 as revealed in "Les Miserables." His daughter +will do that and he buys for her novels, bicycles, gloves and +chocolates with equal fond readiness to humor what he considers whims +pardonable in children. + + * * * * * + +The idea that novel-reading is a harmless and mere amusement expresses +fully the judgment that it is a vice, an encourager of indolence. +There may be two reasons for the judgment, one existing in the novel +itself, the other in the tribunal. Let us first consider the nature of +the tribunal. + +The supreme constituted authority--not only of affairs in this life +but in the ordering of all the future existences that man has +conceived--is Public Opinion. Public opinion is the decree of human +nature determined in impenetrable secrecy, enforced with ceremonious +and bewildering circumlocution. It is thus double-natured. The +organized public opinion that we see, hear, feel and obey is the +costumed officialism of human nature, through ages of custom charged +with enforcing upon individuals the demands of the many. The other is +that tacit and nearly always unconscious understanding among men and +women, which binds them in mysterious cohesion through a belief in or +a dread of something that they can not understand, because they can +not feel it with their hands, control it with their strength or +disturb it with their threats. The myriads of mankind in this secret +tribunal are silent because they are ignorant of speech. They are dull +of brain and low in nervous organization, so that perception with them +is a cerebral agony and even feeling responds only to the shock of +actual physical suffering. Organized public opinion, when compared +with this unnameable and resistless silent force of human instinct is +like a small body of the police in the presence of a vast sullen mob. +If the mob is determined and throws capable leaders forward, the +police either desert to the mob or disappear. If the mob does not +understand itself and produces no leaders the police rule it. It is +fair to speak of this tacit common instinct as ignorant, because the +world always has been shared between Ignorance and his twin brother, +Indolence. Knowledge is the rarest coin that circulates among men. No +one can accumulate knowledge unless he possesses the broad catholicity +of purpose to labor ceaselessly for truth, to accept it from +whatsoever source it comes, in whatsoever guise, with whatsoever +message it brings him, and to abide whatsoever results may follow. If +he expects an angel and a devil comes, it is still the truth he is +seeing, it is still knowledge he is gaining. The genius of +knowledge-seeking was glorified in that obscure German chemist who, +experimenting upon himself with a new solution into which a fatal +wrong ingredient had entered, cried in the agony of death to his +assistant: "Note my symptoms carefully and make an autopsy--I am sure +it is a new poison we have liberated!" If the vast majority of men +shrink from and evade irksome labor with their muscles--even though +life and comfort depend upon it--a still vaster majority shirk the +disciplined toil and tension of the mind, which, if it have real +purpose, makes little of the only rewards that spur men to muscular +labor. + +The men who have really thought and labored and struggled for the +abstract jewel of truth, and to beautify and make happy the world we +live in, are, to the masses of indolent, ignorant, selfish human +beings that have swarmed through the ages, as parasites upon some huge +animal. The mass of humanity, considered as a whole, separated from +these restless and stinging parasites, observed through the +perspective of history, tradition and science, resembles nothing so +much as some monstrous dull-brained and gloomy animal, alternately +dozing and raging through the centuries, now as if stupefied in its +own bulk or then as if furious with the madness of brute power. In +fact, though mankind have achieved the dignity of a history that fills +the thoughtful with wonder, yet as a mass they are filled with as much +violence, injustice, ruthlessness and selfishness as if it were but +yesterday they had emerged from the primitive struggles with wild +beasts, the tangled forests, the trackless mountains, and the pitiless +elements, and yet stood flushed with savage exultation but dull with +physical weariness. In that vast human bulk that sprawls over every +continent, the primitive ferocity still exists, veiled perhaps under +familiar livery and uniform, but untamed by centuries of training. It +is this gloomy mass, saturated with superstitious cowardice, savage +with the selfish instinct of greed, or dull with the languor of gorged +and exhausted passion, that deliberates not in words or thought, but +in some impenetrable free-masonry of instinct like that which beggars +illustrate when they silently display their deformities and +mutilations as the most eloquent appeals. This gloomy mass is at once +the instigator and the instrument of mortal destiny. Individuals may +escape for a time, but they must eventually fall or lift the mass to +meet them. + +The most profound philosophers and most patient students know as +little of this silent, gloomy human force as geographers know of the +archipelagoes of the Antarctic. The philosopher begins with pure +reason and expands it; the student delves into the records of other +students; in unfathomable depths below both are the myriads who eat, +drink, sleep and seek their prey as their primitive parents once did +when they disputed carcasses with the beasts of the forests. + +It is this gloomy, savage force that has made the contemplative soul +of spiritual inquiry writhe under the startling contradictions of +history. When this force has been aroused with fear it has snarled and +roared defiance; when it has been enraged by opposition or the lash of +mastership it has cooled its ferocity in the blood of countless wars, +pillages and sacrifices; when satiated or pleased it has grunted with +pleasure or relaxed itself in orgies so gross and unspeakable that +modern history, with instinctive decency, has kept the story of them +veiled behind dead languages. This gloomy, savage force has always +been the same whether mastered or mastering. When some daring and +cunning genius of its own nature has cowed it, as the Alexanders, +Cęsars and Napoleons have done, it has marched out to slaughter and be +slaughtered with a sullen pride in the daring that this mightier +ferocity has put upon it. When it has mastered its Drusus, its +Domitian, its Nero, its Vespasian and its Louis XVI, it has indulged +in wanton excesses of rage and destruction until, spent with +exhaustion, a new master has arisen to tie it up like a whipped dog. +It was this gloomy and savage force that crowded into the greatest +tribunal of all history, and yelled with discordant and frenzied rage +into the very face of the noblest and gentlest incarnation of +spiritual light that ever spent its brief moment on earth: "Crucify +_Him_! Release unto us Barabbas, _the Thief_." It was this savage +force, serving all masters with equal ferocious zeal, that Theodosius +turned against the Serapion at Alexandria, in the name of +Christianity, to blot out of existence the inestimable treasures of +knowledge and literature that had been accumulated by centuries of +labor. + +At all times this gloomy force has been more wantonly cruel than wild +beasts. Man has been epigrammatically described as a reasoning animal, +a laughing animal, a constructive animal and even as "an animal that +gets drunk;" but the truest description is that he is the cruel and +rapacious animal. The greatest student of the jungle, who has written +of the beasts of the forest with the intuition of genius, has given us +this formula: + + "Now this is the Law of the Jungle--as old and as true as the sky, + And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall + break it must die: + + * * * * + + "Ye may kill for yourselves and your mates and your cubs, as they need + and ye can, + But kill not for pleasure of killing, and seven times never kill man." + +You may spend the remainder of your life attacking that formula of +animal nature if you please, but you will find it at last still truth. +Man kills not only the beasts, but his own species for pleasure, or in +sheer wantonness of cruelty. He loves killing as an exercise; he loves +it as a spectacle; he loves it as the origin of his greatest emotion. +When that there is merely a brutish criminal to be hanged, human +beings crowd the converging roads to the spectacle as centuries ago +they crowded to the Colosseum. And it is to be recorded to the credit +of wild beasts that no traveler ever yet came upon a battlefield that +they had strewn with the dead bodies of their own kind. + +Lest it be contended that this is a psychological portrait of the mass +of mankind caricatured by bitter cynicism, let us examine the aspect +of its physiology. The whole brain of an average Caucasian makes up +fifty ounces of the 140 pounds weight of his body. There are thus 137 +pounds of fleshly necessity to three pounds of intellectual +possibility--forty-six parts of heavy dough to one part of leaven. The +difference in the brain weight of races, and which decides the +question of intellectual superiority, is about two ounces. The +difference in the brain weight of individuals of the same race, +indicating mental superiority is about two ounces. Now as the brains +of individuals of all races must in proportion be equally occupied +with the execution of those functions which we call instinct and those +acts that may be called merely automobile (since they are the results +of training and constant imitation, and have utterly no relation to +intellectuality or mental initiative), it may be fairly assumed that +the spiritual essence of races and individuals exists in a little +grayish pulp-like lump of brain weighing two ounces out of an average +bodily weight of 140 pounds. In the mass of humanity, then, there is +one part possible to flower into the noble perceptions of spiritual +and intellectual life, to 1,120 parts of dull, uniform, automatic +animalism. + +What chance has this solitary microbe of spiritual and intellectual +light against the swarming bacteria of animalism? That single microbe +is merely a possibility. It may be mutilated, it may be dwarfed, it +may fail from weakness, it may be corrupted. It is discouraging to +think how few have grown into strong life through all the perils of +existence. + +Under these circumstances it is but natural that even the small +proportion of mankind endowed with the divine possibilities conferred +by two ounces of brain, should be contaminated with many of the +corruptions from below. Of those who seem to be concerned with +spiritual perceptions there is a vast number mere charlatans and +pretenders who, like the ingenious Japanese, are content to make +cunning imitations of the real things adapted to sell to the best +advantage. They patter the formulas of religion, of science, of art +and morals, and ostentatiously display themselves in the costume of +intellectuality to flatter, cajole and mystify the gloomy ignorance of +their fellows. + +This is the select officialism of the secret human nature, its +recognized and authorized police--the constituted authorities of +Public Opinion. It is among these that we should find the +possibilities of development much increased. What do we find? That the +solitary microbe merely begins its struggle here. It dare not destroy +its swarming enemies since upon their continued existence its own life +depends. It must regulate, control and direct them if it would live +and develop, or with cowardly cunning compromise the struggle at the +outset and become a servant where it seems to command. This is the +first terrace-step of superiority peopled by those who can understand +others above them and interpret to the mass below. + +The microbe that might have become glorious ounces of brain has been +content to become merely a little wart of pulp which finds expression +in skill and quickness and more of coveted leisure. There is the next +higher terrace and another and another, until finally it becomes a +pyramid, ever more fragile and symmetrical, the apex of which is a +delicate spire, where the purest intellects are elevated to an ever +increasing height in ever decreasing numbers, until in the dizzy +altitude above the groveling base below they are wrapped little by +little in the cold solitude of incarnate genius burning like suns with +their own essence. It is so far up that the eyes deceive and men +dispute who it is that stands at the top, but, whoever he may be, he +has carried by the force of strength, determination and patient will +the whole swarm of his evil bacteria with him. They swarm through +every terrace below, increasing in force as the pyramid enlarges +downward. It is the pyramidal bulk of human nature with its finest +brain, true to anatomic principles, at the top. That radiance at the +summit is the delight and the aspiration of all below. As it rises as +slowly as growth of a coral reef it increases the courage of those +below in proportion as they are near. + +But the whole bulk is alive with the bacteria of animalism, under +increasing control as it rises, still with the ferocity, rapacity and +selfish passions of the gloomy mass at the bottom and forever in +revolt. Is this not proved by history, written and unwritten? Is it +not proved by the ghastly secrets of individual introspection that men +never reveal or admit to others; secrets guarded by a system of +conventions so impenetrable and vast that to attempt to personalize it +in the sneaking figure of Hypocrisy would be as absurd as to try to +enlarge the significance of an ivory chessman by setting it up on a +lady's jewel box and naming it Moloch. All men feel how much of them +is brute and how much is reason; but it is the unimpartable secret of +human society whose betrayal has been rendered impossible by universal +denials in advance, enacted in to what we call criminal laws, under +which admissions are denied by the brand of proportionate infamies, to +demonstrate that the traitor who has acted or spoken has not put into +expression the secrets of the mass. Great armies and constabularies +are kept to commit upon a large scale the murders and violence which, +when committed upon a small scale, they punish. + +What is the record of the officialism of public opinion? There has +been nothing so abhorrent and cruel, so sordid, mean, frivolous, +indecent or insane, that the representative fashion and respectability +of some splendid civilization has not justified, approved and +sustained it. It has licensed every wanton passion of the body. It has +even indulged, contemptuously at times, those individuals inspired +through the mysterious selection of immortal genius to safeguard the +slender flame of spiritual light and life. But those indulged have +always been made to feel that they were secure only as long as their +performances excited jaded appetites as a novelty. If dwarfs and +monstrosities staled; if dancing girls palled; if gladiators wearied; +if there were no new games invented--then bring in a poet or +artist--some queer fellow who had discovered something that he called +truth or beauty, and let him amuse. But if he does not amuse, or if he +wear out his welcome, away with him. In the history of our own +civilization, as our ideals go, there was one divine incarnation of +spiritual and intellectual life that struggled through the tears, +blood and dirt of existence without one stain upon the purity of his +nature. This essence was a beacon light that has shone steadily +through nearly two thousand years. And Him the officialism of human +nature, in exaltation of savage contempt, nailed upon a cross, and set +up for an ominous warning to the whole world. It had already marked +the noble Socrates, and, like Cleopatra to her slave, handed him a cup +of poison. It was afterward to compel Gallileo to swallow in shame and +agony his testimony to unalterable truth. Even in this year, under the +title of a great church, it has, with pitiless persistence, forced a +great student and educator, not to deny a historical fact that he had +discovered, but to humbly regret its promulgation. As if the +concealment of a truth for your advantage in moral controversy were +not a greater crime than the concealment of a murderer for pay! +Whenever this officialism has concluded to amuse itself with spiritual +inquiries in the name of religious controversies, it has conducted +them with fire and the sword, with thumbscrews and the boot, and all +manner of ingenious ferocity. + +The officialism of public opinion has always been ready to serve the +demands of the base nature below. It was the great lawgiver, Lycurgus, +who taught Spartan youths the commercial economy of theft and the +virtue and advantage of lying. It was not only when Rome was in decay, +but when she was at the zenith of glory from the first Brutus to +Octavius, when Cęsar, Cicero, Seneca, Horace, and the Plinys lived at +the seat of the knowledge, wealth, art and power of the world, that +women crowded the colosseums to feast their senses upon the ferocity +of tigers and give the death signal to the gladiator who charmed by +his fatal skill. It was while Shakespeare lived that English gentlemen +and mothers apprenticed their sons to the trade of piracy. In our own +century and country we have seen Abraham Lincoln, the liberator, +himself, enlist under the flag of official public opinion to strike a +blow in the extermination of red Indians who had committed the +unpardonable crime of owning their own land whereon we are assembled +to-day. + +The fashions of lust and cruelty may change with the amusements they +permit, but officialism promotes all with zeal. At present we laugh at +Mesmer and study hypnotism; at present we sneer at the incarnations of +Vishnu and inquire into Theosophy; at present we condemn the +sacrificial "great custom" of King Prempeh and order our killings by +twelve men and the sheriff and by elaborate machinery; at present we +shudder at the sports of Commodus and wait breathlessly upon bulletins +from Carson City. Those who scouted the fetiches of Dahomey have +waited on their knees in the Cathedral at Naples for the liquefaction +of the blood of St. Januarius, or crawled in agony of hope to the +saving pool at Lourdes. There have been those melted to tenderest +compassion at the sight of a wounded dog or an overdriven horse, who +have yet owned human slaves and contended that it was right, even if +harsh, to sell a mother and her child from one auction block to +different owners. There have been those so wounded by the shortcomings +of their neighbors that they have organized white-capped bands of +virtue to wipe out immorality in the cleansing blood of murder. A man +may reject the miracle of Jonah and yet see an airship. + + * * * * * + +Now this is the tribunal that has handed down the judgment that +novel-reading is a vice. Is it not a most natural, just and honest +opinion? Could such a tribunal properly pronounce any other? Is it not +such a judgment in fact as vindicates the integrity of the court, +while it crowns the culprit with glory? In expressing the idea that +the reading of novels is only an amusement--to be taken up when there +is nothing else to do--your average grocer, tailor, lawyer, or what +not, has but spoken to you the world's judgment. In fact there are +countless readers of novels who have grown up in this atmosphere of +conviction that novels are meant only to amuse. They are so habituated +to the idea that novels, to them, are valueless--mere sentimental +unrealities or spiced narratives of heated invention--so that they go +through the treasure houses of genius without ever hearing the +soft-voiced persuasion of knowledge or seeing the marvelous, vivid +panorama of human life, illustrating its aspirations, sorrows, +struggles, triumphs and failures. Such readers, convinced in advance +that everything in a novel is fictitious, because the personages +discussed are fictitious in name, never dream that study of the +conduct of these personages may be useful to influence their own +manners, conduct, morals or sympathies. Indeed, some of them are so +confident of the unreality of novels that when they are confronted +with their own counterparts in fictitious personality they feel a +certain sense of humiliation as of being convicted of eccentricity, of +an unlikeness to actual persons, which must be concealed as branding +them "fit to be put into a novel." To such persons novel-reading is a +vice, because it is an indolent excitement, a mental opium-eating; the +useless butting--against an unscalable wall--of brains intended to be +fully occupied in developing those parts of the nervous and muscular +systems that find their highest application in vigorous devotion to +the washboard or the laying of gas pipes down. + +What a different result is achieved by the reader who knows the secret +that imagination is the soul of thought, that taste is the power of +truth and that the abstractions produced by imagination and taste +dealing with fact to convert it to fiction, or carefully assembling +fiction to convert it to fact, have been the stars that have lighted +up the night of human history. By the light of these in their varying +forms man discovered Religion, Philosophy, Science, Government and the +possibility of orderly Liberty. To such a reader the novel comprehends +all human society, its customs and secrets. The untraveled man may sit +in his library and become as familiar with the world as with his +native town; the diffident student may mingle familiarly in the +society of courts; the bashful girl may learn the most engaging +manners; the slow may learn the trick of wit; the rich may learn +sympathy for the poor; the weak may be warned against the pitfalls of +temptation and every one may there survey himself in every aspect, +subjected to discussion and exhibition under various disguises and +under various circumstances; and, if he have courage and the desire, +he can decide what he thinks of himself and the possibilities of +improving the opinion in the light of full knowledge of the subject. + +The Novel has come as the solvent of all literary art. In its +possibilities all the essentials of other literary forms are +combined and conveyed without injury. Professedly not History, it +performs all its wonders in the guise of History and adds a light and +a human interest to chronicle that gives increased value. We do not +get sympathetic and human knowledge of England from History, but from +Scott, Thackeray and her splendid historical novelists. We do not turn +to Guizot and Thiers for any knowledge of French history except its +stated public facts, its documents with royal seals and its verified +dates and details--it is to Dumas, Merimee, Balzac that all but the +professional students of history go. We do not seek in the rapid +sketches of Gibbon for the story of Nero, but in the pages of "Quo +Vadis." Where do we find the breathing history of Spain except in the +countless novels that its picturesque subjects have suggested? I would +scorn to underestimate the profound and substantial value that the +great muse of History has conferred upon the world. In all literature +she deservedly ranks first in dignity, power and usefulness; but who +will say that at her court the Prime Minister is not the Novel, which +by its lightness, grace and address has popularized history all over +the world? + +While the Novel has none of the guise of poetry, yet it has its every +essence, neglecting only form and rhyme. In the Novel you may find the +measure, the accent and the figures of the whole range of poetry, and +a capacity for inspiring enthusiasm and emulation quite as great as +poetry unjoined to the divine enchantress, Music. + +Plainly not Drama, yet what is more dramatic than the Novel? In the +miracle of its pages you find theater, scenery, actors, audience and +author. You may sit at your ease in your library chair and command the +services of the most innumerable company of comedians, tragedians, +lovers, ladies, buffoons, soubrettes and pantomimists that the world +ever knew. How many novels have been turned into dramas, how few +dramas have been successfully expanded into novels! + +Thus the Novel, while it is not History nor Poetry nor the Drama, is a +combination of all. And it possesses more than this. Its lightness +enables it to tell the history of the commonest peasant--a subject +that History disdained until the Novel bent to the task. Its +flexibility makes it possible to write the history of types and +classes; its capacity enables it to convey science, to teach morals, +to illuminate the abstract difficulties of every philosophy, to utter +the despairing human protests stifled elsewhere, and to embrace every +purpose for which words were created and human aspirations were +kindled. That it has lent itself to base uses is true. How could it +escape the contamination that has smirched every other art? And, as in +every other art, that which is base and false in fiction soon dies of +its own inherent weakness and is forgotten. But decade by decade the +Novel grows more powerful, more noble, and more adaptable to the +spiritual uses of man. The time will come when the Novel will stand on +the book-shelves with history, the philosophies and the sciences, as +of equal honor and use--necessary to complete the education of every +scholar; yet even then there will probably be a tribunal to pronounce +it to be, if not a vice, at least of doubtful utility. + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's On the Vice of Novel Reading., by Young E. 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