by the ,bibliothque nationale de ,france
 7,bn,f_/,gallica7 at                   
http3_/_/gallica4bnf4fr7       ,thomas  
,hill ,green   ,an ,estimate of ,the    
,value and ,influence  ,of  ,works of   
,fiction ,in ,modern ,times   ,edited   
,with ,introduction and ,notes  ,by     
,fred ,newton ,scott  ,professor of     
,rhetoric in the ,university of         
,michigan                               
,george ,wahr                           
,ann ,arbor                             
,michigan                               
#aiaa   ,,copyright  ,,fred ,,newton    
,,scott  #aiaa   ,,the ,,ann ,,arbor    
,,press ,,ann ,,arbor1 ,,mich4          
,,preface   ,for a good many years ,i   
have used this essay of ,green's with an
 advanced class in the theory of prose  
fiction4 ,it has worked well4 ,it always
 arouses discussion1 and in doing so it 
has the great virtue that it imperiously
 leads the argument away from           
superficialities and centers it upon    
fundamentals4 ,its service as a stimulus

 to high thinking cannot easily be      
overestimated4 ,for any student1 and    
especially for one who has known only   
the unidea'd criticism of fiction so    
popular today1 it is a fine thing to    
come in contact with a high-minded1     
sturdy1 and uncompromising thinker such 
as ,green is4 ,as ,green says of the    
hearer of tragedy1 ,he bears about him1 
for a time at least1 among the rank     
vapors of the earth1 something of the   
freshness and fragrance of the higher   
air4 ,i trust that this reprint1 by     
making the essay more easily accessible 
than it has been heretofore1 will help  
to raise the grade of student thought   
and taste and criticism4                
,f4 ,n4 ,s4 ,university of ,michigan    
,december #a1 #aiaj4     ,,contents4    
,,page ,introduction                    
#i ,i4 ,,principles ,,of ,,art          
#ai    a4 ,epic1 ,drama1 and ,novel     
#ai    b4 ,imitation vs4 ,art           
#ba    c4 ,nature the ,creation of      
,thought                        #bb     

d4 ,the ',outward' aspect of ,nature    
#bc    e4 ,conquest of ,nature by ,art  
#bd    f4 ,the ,artist as ,idealizer    
#bf    g4 ,the ,epic                    
#bg    h4 ,tragedy as ,purifier of the  
,passions                   #bi    i4   
,tragedy the ,elevation of ,life        
#cc    j4 ,conditions ,favorable to     
,tragedy                       #cd ,,ii4
 ,,the ,,novel ,,an ,,inferior ,,form   
,,of ,,art                       #ce    
a4 ,beginnings of the ,novel            
#ce    b4 ,characteristics of the       
,spectator                    #cf    c4 
,the ,modern ,novel a ,reflection of    
,ordinary ,life        #ch    d4        
,naturalism vs4 ,idealism               
#dc    e4 ,tragedy and the ,novel       
#dd    f4 ,the ,epic and the ,novel     
#dg    g4 ,poetry and ,prose            
#di    h4 ,the ,novel an ,incomplete    
,presentation of ,life          #eb     
i4 ,prudence the ,novelist's ,highest   
,morality              #ed    j4 ,evil  
,effects of ,novel-reading              

#ef ,,iii4 ,,true ,,function ,,of ,,the 
,,novel                             #fj 
a4 ,a ,widener of ,experience           
#fj    b4 ,an ,expander of ,sympathies  
#fc    c4 ,a ,creator of ,public        
,sentiment                         #fi  
d4 ,a ,leveller of ,intellects          
#fi  ,,appendix4     a4 ,an             
,appreciation of ,green's ,essay        
#gb    b4 ,hegel on the ,novel          
#gg     ,,introduction   ,thomas ,hill  
,green was born in ,birkin1 ,yorkshire1 
,april #g1 #ahcf4 ,his early education  
was acquired first at home under his    
father1 the rector of ,birkin1 then at  
,rugby1 where he was sent at the age of 
fourteen4 ,in #ahee he entered ,balliol 
,college1 ,oxford1 and came under the   
influence of ,jowett1 afterwards famous 
as ,master of ,balliol and translator of
 ,plato4 ,though he matured early1      
,green was not a brilliant student4 ,on 
the contrary1 he appeared to be indolent
 and sluggish4 ,no man1 wrote one of his
 fellow-students in #ahfb1 is driven    

with greater difficulty to work not to  
his taste4444 ,he wrote some of the best
 college essays3 he never sent them in  
on the right day1 and might generally be
 seen on the ,monday pondering over     
essays which every one else had sent in 
on the ,friday night4 ,these traits1    
however1 as it proved later1 were the   
index not of a vagrant mind1 but of     
independence of thought and of          
preoccupation with weightier matters4   
,to quote again from the tribute of a   
fellow-student3 ,on everything he said  
or wrote there was stamped the impress  
of a forcible individuality1 a mind that
 thought for itself1 and whose thoughts 
had the rugged strength of an original  
character wherein grimness was mingled  
with humor1 and practical shrewdness    
with a love for abstract speculation4   
,in the end1 his solid qualities of mind
 and character made so strong an        
impression upon the ,university         
authorities that in #ahfj he was elected
 fellow of ,balliol4 ,at the same time  

he became lecturer on ancient and modern
 history4 ,though from the beginning of 
his student life he had been drawn to an
 academic career and especially to the  
study of philosophy1 he was now for a   
period undecided what to make his       
life-work4 ,at one time he thought of   
going into journalism in ,india4 ,in    
#ahfd1 having accepted a place with the 
,royal ,commission on ,middle ,class    
,schools1 he prepared a valuable report 
upon the organization of high schools   
and their relation to the university4   
,finally1 however1 in #ahff1 his        
indecision was brought to an end4       
,obtaining an appointment in that year  
to a position on the teaching staff of  
,balliol ,college1 he settled down to   
the work of a tutor in philosophy4 ,when
 ,jowett was made ,master of ,balliol1  
,green became1 under him1 the           
responsible manager of the college1     
performing the manifold small duties of 
the position with patience1             
thoroughness1 and tact4  ,in #ahga he   

was married to ,miss ,charlotte         
,symonds1 sister of ,john ,addington    
,symonds4  ,twice ,green was candidate  
for a professorship2 once in #ahfd when 
he applied for the chair of moral       
philosophy at ,st4 ,andrews1 and again  
in #ahfg when the ,waynflate            
professorship of moral and metaphysical 
philosophy fell vacant at ,oxford4 ,in  
both cases he was unsuccessful4 ,it was 
not until #ahgh1 by his election to the 
,whyte's professorship of moral         
philosophy1 that he obtained the        
position and the independence he had    
long deserved4 ,his enjoyment of the    
honor was brief4 ,he died of            
blood-poisoning1 after an illness of    
only ten days1 ,march #bf1 #ahhb4       
,green's character was compounded of a  
variety of elements4 ,the shyness and   
reserve characteristic of many          
cultivated ,englishmen1 was accentuated 
in his case by a natural austerity and  
an absorption in serious thought4 ,but  
though his temper was puritanic and     

inclined to moroseness1 there was no    
sourness or cynicism in it4 ,if1 he     
wrote to ,miss ,symonds1 ,i am rather a 
melancholy bird1 given to physical      
fatigue and depression1 yet ,i have     
never known for a moment what it was to 
be weary of life1 as the youth of this  
age are fond of saying that they are4   
,the world has always seemed very good  
to me4 ,grim though he might be         
outwardly1 he had a keen sense of humor 
and a warmth of interest in his fellows 
that made him1 for those who broke      
through his reserve1 a charming         
companion4 ,his most characteristic     
quality was elevation of mind4 ,in the  
essay that is here reprinted he speaks  
of that aspiring pride which arises from
 the sense of walking in intellect on   
the necks of a subject crowd4 ,something
 of this elevation1 this aloofness from 
the vulgar1 characterized all of his    
utterances and gave to them at times a  
solemn fervency akin to that of the     
,hebrew prophets4 ,this trait is finely 

portrayed in the following description  
of the tutor ,grey 7a thin disguise for 
,green7 in ,mrs4 ,ward's ',robert       
,elsmere3'        ,in after years memory
 could always recall to him at will the 
face      and figure of the speaker1 the
 massive head1 the deep eyes sunk       
under the brows1 the midland accent1 the
 make of limb and features      which   
seemed to have some suggestion in them  
of the rude strength      and simplicity
 of a peasant ancestry2 and then the    
nobility1 the      fire1 the spiritual  
beauty flashing through it all6 ,here1  
indeed1      was a man on whom his      
fellows might lean1 a man in whom the   
generation of spiritual force was so    
strong and continuous that it           
overflowed of necessity into the poorer1
 barrener lives around him1             
kindling and enriching4   ,green's      
contributions to philosophy were partly 
constructive1 partly 7and perhaps       
mainly7 critical and destructive4 ,on   
the critical side1 his greatest effort  

was his attack upon the philosophy of   
,hume in two masterly ,introductions to 
an edition of ,hume's ',works1'         
published in #ahgd-e4 ,english          
philosophical thinking1 so ,green held1 
had stuck fast in the scepticism of     
,hume4 ,such forward movement in thought
 as there had been since the #ahth      
,century1 had come mainly through the   
writings of men like ,wordsworth and    
,shelley--men who having seen deeply    
into life1 had expressed themselves in  
imaginative1 not in philosophical ways4 
,to set the stagnant tide of speculative
 thinking in motion1 involved a two-fold
 task3 on one side the breaking down of 
the barriers erected by the             
sensationalist and materialist schools  
of the #agth and #ahth centuries1 and on
 the other side the letting in of a     
current of fresh ideas from some source 
outside of ,england4 ,the first1 or     
destructive1 task ,green performed with 
remarkable success in the two           
,introductions4 ,for the new and truer  

ideas which were to displace the old1 he
 naturally looked to ,germany1 whose    
methods of research were just coming    
into vogue at ,oxford through the       
influence of ,pattison and ,jowett4 ,and
 since to speculative thinkers of that  
time ,german philosophy meant the       
philosophy of ,hegel1 ,green's          
fundamental conceptions were derived by 
,hegelian modes of thinking4 ,in other  
words1 he was a neo-,hegelian4 ,but1 as 
his biographer notes1 he never committed
 himself unreservedly to the ,hegelian  
credo4 ,while he regarded ,hegel's      
system as the 'last word of philosophy1'
 he did not occupy himself with the     
exposition of it1 but with the          
reconsideration of the elements in ,kant
 of which it was the development4 ,that 
is1 he was a neo-,kantian as well as a  
neo-,hegelian4 ,of his constructive     
thinking in these channels the most     
complete embodiment is his ',prolegomena
 to ,ethics4'  ,though naturally his    
contributions to philosophy are first in

 bulk and importance1 ,green's writings 
cover a considerable range of subjects4 
,listed in the order of publication1    
they are as follows3 ',the ,force of    
,circumstances1' published in           
,undergraduate ,papers1 #aheh2 ',an     
,estimate of the ,value and ,influence  
of ,prose ,fiction1' published as a     
prize essay1 #ahfb2 ',the ,philosophy of
 ,aristotle' and ',popular ,philosophy  
in its relation to ,life1' ,north       
,british ,review1 ,sept41 #ahff1 and    
,march1 #ahfh2 ,introductions to        
',hume's ,treatise of ,human ,nature'   
#ahgd-e2 ',the ,grading of ,secondary   
,schools1' ,journal of ,education1 ,may1
 #ahgg2 ,review of ,e4 ,caird's         
',philosophy of ,kant1' ,academy1 ,sept4
 #bb1 #ahgg2 ',mr4 ,spencer on the      
,relations of ,subject and ,object1'    
,contemporary ,review1 ,dec41 #ahgg2    
',mr4 ,spencer on the ,independence of  
,matter1' ibid41 ,march1 #ahgh2 ',mr4   
,lewes' ,account of ,experience1' ibid41
 ,july1 #ahgh2 review of ,j4 ,caird's   

',introduction to the ,philosophy of    
,religion1' ,academy1 ,july #aj1 #ahhj2 
',answer to ,mr4 ,hodgson1'             
,contemporary ,review1 ,january1 #ahha2 
review of ,j4 ,watson's ',kant and his  
,english ,critics1' ,academy1 ,september
 #ag1 #bd1 #ahha2 ',liberal ,legislation
 and ,freedom of ,control1' #ahha2 ',the
 ,work to be done by the ,new ,oxford   
,high ,school1' #ahhb2 ',prolegomena to 
,ethics1' #ahhc2 ',the ,witness of ,god'
 and ',faith' 7delivered in #ahgj and   
#ahgg1 and at the time printed for      
private circulation71 #ahhd4  ,all of   
the foregoing1 with the exception of the
 ',prolegomena to ,ethics1' are included
 in the ',works' edited by ,r4 ,l4      
,nettleship 7#c ,vols41 #ahhe1 #b;d ,ed4
 #ahhi1 ,longmans74 ,the ',works'       
contain1 in addition1 the following     
writings not previously published3 ,an  
essay on ',the ,influence of            
,civilization on ,genius'2 an essay on  
',christian ,dogma'2 an article on ',mr4
 ,lewes' ,account of the ,social        

,medium1' written for the ,contemporary 
,review1 but not used2 four lectures or 
addresses on the ,new ,testament2 four  
lectures on ',the ,english              
,commonwealth'2 a series of lectures on 
',the ,philosophy of ,kant1' on ',logic'
 and on ',the principles of ,political  
,obligations'2 a lecture on ',the       
,different ,senses of ,freedom as       
,applied to ,will and to the ,moral     
,progress of ,man'2 and a fragment on   
',immortality4'  ,aside from occasional 
references to poetry and art in his     
philosophical writings1 as1 for example1
 in the opening paragraphs of the       
',prolegomena1' the essay on fiction    
here reprinted is ,green's only venture 
in the field of aesthetic criticism4    
,when we remember that it was one of his
 earliest productions1 having been      
submitted for the ,chancellor's prize in
 #ahfb1 when ,green was but #bf years of
 age1 the maturity of both style and    
contents seems remarkable4 ,it is in    
fact a monumental piece of literary     

criticism1 sufficient to establish the  
reputation of many a lesser writer4 ,at 
the same time1 however1 there is about  
it an air of constraint which shows that
 the author was not at ease in this kind
 of speculation4 ,he was fencing1 so to 
speak1 with his left hand4 ,his mind was
 so absorbed in the metaphysical1       
ethical1 and religious aspects of       
experience that upon the aesthetic as   
such he had little attention to bestow4 
,when he approached aesthetic problems  
at all it was for the purpose of        
obtaining data which he could employ in 
other fields of thought4 ,he was        
obviously not in sympathy with the aims 
of ,english novelists4 ,he had no expert
 knowledge of the history of fiction in 
,england1 and no knowledge at all1 so   
far as appears1 of its history in other 
countries4 ,probably he misunderstood   
the relation1 in certain particulars1 of
 the novel to the epic4 ,nevertheless1  
his appreciation of concrete works of   
art was so genuine and profound1 his    

insight so clear1 his expressed         
judgments so candid1 that any contact of
 his mind with art1 literary or other1  
could not fail to be illuminating4      
,whatever its limitations1 the essay has
 at least one distinguishing merit3 in  
it a fundamental principle of criticism 
is applied with merciless rigor to the  
solution of a literary problem4 ,the    
products of such a method are certain to
 be interesting and valuable4 ,whether  
we agree with the author's conclusions  
or not1 we can at least see whence he   
derives them and feel the stimulus which
 always comes from the spectacle of a   
powerful mind grappling in deadly       
earnest with momentous questions of art 
and life4                      ,,an     
,,estimate                    of the    
,value and ,influence of                
,works of ,fiction in                   
,modern ,times     ,i4 ,,principles ,,of
 ,,art     ,a4 ,,epic1 ,,drama1 ,,and   
,,novel   #a4 ,we commonly distinguish  
writings which appeal directly to the   

emotions from those of which the        
immediate object is the conveyance of   
knowledge1 by applying to the former a  
term of conveniently loose meaning1     
works of imagination4 ,of the kinds     
included in the wide denotation of this 
term there are three1 between which it  
seems difficult at first sight to draw a
 definite line2 which appeal to similar 
feelings1 and excite a similar interest1
 in the different ages to which each is 
appropriate4 ,these are the epic poem1  
the drama1 and the novel4 ,each purports
 to be1 in some sort1 a reflex of human 
life and action1 as obeying certain laws
 and tending to a certain end4 ,in each 
men are represented1 not as at rest1 or 
in contemplative isolation1 but in      
co-operation or collision4 ,in each     
there is a combination of two elements1 
an outer element of incident1 an inner  
of passion and character4 ,in view of   
these common features1 we might be      
tempted at first sight to suppose the   
difference between the three kinds to be

 merely one of form1 merely the         
difference between the vehicle of prose 
and the vehicle of metre4 ,we shall     
find1 however1 on deeper inquiry1 that  
to the true artist1 who does not find   
his materials in the world1 but creates 
them according to the inner laws by     
which the world and himself are         
governed1 the vehicle is not more a part
 of his creation than the impassioned   
truth which it conveys4 ,here1 as       
elsewhere1 form and substance are       
inseparable2 and the difference of form 
that distinguishes the novel from the   
other kinds of composition which it     
seems for the present to have           
superseded1 symbolises1 or rather is    
identical with1 a different potency in  
the art by which the substance is       
created4#a  ,,footnote3  #a ,though in  
its most general sense the substance and
 matter of all fine art is the same1    
issuing from the common source of the   
human desire for expression1 yet the    
region of fancy corresponding to each   

medium of utterance is molded by        
intercourse with that medium1 and       
acquires an individuality which is not  
directly reducible to terms of any other
 region of aesthetic fancy4 ,feeling1 in
 short1 is modified in becoming         
communicable2 and the feeling which has 
become communicable in music is not     
capable of re-translation into the      
feeling which has become communicable in
 painting4 ,thus the arts have no doubt 
in common a human and even rational     
content--rational in so far as the      
feelings which are embodied in          
expression1 for expression's sake1 arise
 in connection with ideas and purposes2 
but each of them has separately its own 
peculiar physical medium of expression  
and also a whole region of modified     
feeling or fancy which constitutes the  
material proper to be expressed in the  
medium and according to the laws of each
 particular art4--,b4 ,bosanquet1 ',the 
,relation of the ,fine ,arts to ,one    
,another' 7,proceedings of the          

,aristotelian ,society74     ,b4        
,,imitation vs4 ,,art   #b4 ,mere       
copying is not art4 ,the farther the    
artist rises above the stage of         
imitation1 the higher is his art1 the   
more elevating its influence on those   
who can enter into its spirit4 ,if the  
landscape-painter does nothing more than
 represent nature as seen by the outward
 eye1 the vulgar objection against      
looking at pictures--,i can see as fine 
a view as this any day--is              
unquestionably valid4 ,but if the       
painter is anything better than a       
photographer1 he does far more than     
this4 ,he brings nature before us1 as we
 have seen it1 perhaps1 only once or    
twice in our lives1 under the influence 
of some strong emotion4 ,he does that   
for us which we cannot do for ourselves2
 he reproduces those moments of         
spiritual exaltation in which we feel   
that we are greater than we             
know--moments which we can remember1 and
 of which the mere memory may be the    

light of our lives1 but which no act of 
our own will can bring back4 ,it is not 
till the distinction has been           
appreciated between nature as it is and 
nature as we make it to be1 between that
 which we see and that which having not 
seen we love1 that any branch of art can
 be reckoned in its proper value4       
,c4 ,,nature ,,the ,,creation ,,of      
,,thought   #c4 ,in one sense of the the
 word1 it would no doubt be true to say 
that nature is simply and altogether    
that which we make it to be4 ,modern    
philosophy has discarded the language   
which represented our knowledge of      
things as the result of impressions and 
the transmission of images4#b ,if we    
still not only speak but think of       
ourselves as primarily passive and in   
contact with an alien world1 this arises
 simply from the difficulty of          
conceiving a pure spontaneous activity4 
,driven from the crude imagination which
 found the primary condition of         
knowledge in the reception of ideas from

 without1 common sense took refuge in   
the more refined hypothesis of unknown  
objects1 which cause our sensations1 and
 through sensations our knowledge4#c    
,but this standing-ground has been swept
 away by the consideration that such a  
cause may be found within as well as    
without1 in the laws of the subject's   
activity as well as in objects          
confessedly beyond the reach of         
cognition4 ,our ultimate analysis can   
find no element in knowledge which is   
not supplied by ourselves in conformity 
to a ruling law1 or which exists        
independently of the action of human    
thought4  ,,footnotes3  #b ,as1 e4g41 in
 the philosophy of ,locke4  #c ,probably
 referring to ,herbert ,spencer4     ,d4
 ,,the ,,outward ,,aspect ,,of ,,nature 
#d4 ,but though the world of nature is1 
in this sense1 a world of man's own     
creation1 it is so in a different way   
from the world of art and of philosophy4
 ,thought is indeed its parent1 but     
thought in its primary stage fails to   

recognize it as its own1 fails to       
transfer to it its own attributes of    
universality1 and identity in           
difference4 ,it sees outward objects    
merely in their diversity and isolation4
 ,it seeks to penetrate nature by       
endless dichotomy1 glorying in that     
dissection of unity which is the        
abdication of its own prerogative4#d ,it
 treats outward things as ministering to
 animal wants1 as the sources of        
personal and particular pleasures and   
pains2 and thus induces the sense of    
bondage1 of collision with a world in   
which it has not yet learnt to find     
itself4 ,it places the end of human life
 not in harmony with the law which is   
the highest form of itself1 but in      
happiness1 i4e41 in the extraction of   
the greatest possible amount of         
enjoyment from a world to which it seems
 to be accidentally related4 ,the view  
of things corresponding to this stage of
 thought is what we commonly call their 
outward aspect4 ,it is the aspect of    

matter-of-fact1 of logic1 of mere       
morality1 as opposed to that of art1 of 
philosophy1 and religion4  ,,footnote3  
#d ,life1 says ,professor ,dewey        
7',studies in ,logical ,theory1' p4     
#ha71 proposes to maintain at all       
hazards the unity of its own process4   
,and in a foot-note he adds3 ,professor 
,james's satisfaction in the            
contemplation of bare pluralism1 of     
disconnection1 of radical               
having-nothing-to-do-with-one-another1  
is a case in point4 ,the satisfaction   
points to an aesthetic attitude in which
 the brute diversity becomes itself one 
interesting object2 and thus unity      
asserts itself in its own denial4 ,when 
discords are hard and stubborn1 and     
intellectual and practical unification  
are far to seek1 nothing is commoner    
than the device of securing the needed  
unity by recourse to an emotion which   
feeds on the very brute variety4        
,religion and art and romantic affection
 are full of examples4     ,e4          

,,conquest ,,of ,,nature ,,by ,,art     
#e4 ,the perfection of this of latter   
and higher view involves the absolute   
fusion of thought and things4 ,its full 
attainment is a new creation of the     
world4 ,yet it is but the discovery of a
 relationship which was from the        
beginning1 the adoption by thought of a 
child which was never other than its    
own4 ,the habitual interpretation of    
natural events by the analogy of human  
design1 to which every hour's           
conversation testifies1 is the evidence 
that to the ordinary man nature presents
 itself not as something external1 but1 
like a friend1 as another himself4 ,the 
true conquest of nature is but the      
completion of the reconciliation thus   
anticipated in the everyday language and
 consciousness of mankind4 ,when the    
mind has come to see in the endless flux
 of outward things1 not a succession of 
isolated phenomena1 but the reflex of   
its own development into an infinite    
variety of laws on a basis of           

identity--when the laws of nature are   
raised to the character of laws which   
regulate admiration and love--when the  
experiences of life are held together in
 a medium of pure emotion1 and the      
animal element so fused with the        
spiritual as to form one organization   
through which the same impulse runs with
 unimpeded energy--then man has made    
nature his own1 by becoming a conscious 
partaker of the reason which animates   
him and it4#e ,the attainment of this   
consummation is the end of life3 but it 
is an end that can never be fully       
realised1 while dualism remains a       
necessary condition of humanity4 ,to    
most men it is as a land very far off1  
of which occasional glimpses are caught 
from some specular mount of philosophic 
or poetic thought4 ,it can only approach
 realisation through the operation of a 
power which can penetrate the whole man1
 and act on every moment of his life4   
,but that power1 which in the form of   
religion can make every meal a          

sacrament1 and transform human passion  
into the likeness of divine love1 is    
represented at a lower stage1 not only  
by the unifying action of speculative   
philosophy1 but by the combining force  
of art4  ,,footnote3  #e ,the same      
thought may be found1 in concrete and   
poetic form1 in ,wordsworth's lines3    
,and ,i have felt      ,a presence that 
disturbs me with the joy      ,of       
elevated thoughts2 a sense sublime      
,of something far more deeply           
interfused1      ,whose dwelling is the 
light of setting suns1      ,and the    
round ocean and the living air1         
,and the blue sky1 and in the mind of   
man2      ,a motion and a spirit1 that  
impels      ,all thinking things1 all   
objects of all thought1      ,and rolls 
through all things4 ,therefore am ,i    
still      ,a lover of the meadows and  
the woods1      ,and mountains4     ,f4 
,,the ,,artist ,,as ,,idealizer   #f4   
,the artist1 even at his lowest level1  
is more than an imitator of             

imitations4#f ,abridgment1 selection1   
combination1 are the necessary          
instruments of his craft2 and by their  
aid he introduces harmony and order into
 the confused multiplicity of sensuous  
images4 ,he substitutes for the primary 
outward aspect of things a new view1 in 
which thought already finds a resting   
place4 ,just as strong emotion tends to 
make all known existence the setting of 
a single form2 just as intense          
meditation sees in all experience the   
manifestation of a single idea2 so the  
artist1 even if he be merely telling a  
story1 or painting a common landscape1  
puts some of his materials in a relief1 
and combines all in a harmony1 which the
 untaught eye does not find in the world
 as it is4 ,he presents to us the facts 
in the one case1 the outward objects in 
the other1 as already acted upon by     
thought and emotion4 ,in this sense     
every artist1 instead of copying nature1
 idealises it4 ,in degree and mode1     
however1 the idealisation varies        

infinitely in the various kinds of art4 
,it is by considering the height to     
which it is carried in the epic poem and
 the drama that we shall best appreciate
 its limitations in the novel4          
,,footnote3  #f ,here are three beds3   
one existing in nature1 which is made by
 ,god1 as ,i think that we may say--for 
no one else can be the                  
maker8--,no4--,there is another which is
 the work of the carpenter8--,yes4--,and
 the work of the painter is a           
third8--,yes8--,beds1 then1 are of three
 kinds1 and there are three artists who 
superintend them3 ,god1 the maker of the
 bed1 and the painter8--,yes1 there are 
three of them4--,god1 whether from      
choice or from necessity1 made one bed  
in nature and one only2 two or more such
 ideal beds neither ever have been nor  
ever will be made by ,god4444 ,shall we1
 then1 speak of ,him as the natural     
author or maker of the bed8--,yes1 he   
replied2 inasmuch as by the natural     
process of creation ,he is the author of

 this and of all other things4--,and    
what shall we say of the carpenter--is  
he not also the maker of the            
bed8--,yes4--,but would you call the    
painter a creator and maker8--,certainly
 not4--,yet if he is not the maker1 what
 is he in relation to the bed8--,i      
think1 he said1 that we may fairly      
designate him as the imitator of that   
which the others make4--,good1 ,i said2 
then you call him who is third in the   
descent from nature an                  
imitator8--,certainly1 he said4--,and   
the tragic poet is an imitator1 and     
therefore1 like all other imitators1 he 
is thrice removed from the king and from
 the truth4--,that appears to be        
so4--,plato1 ',republic1' ,x4 #eig4     
,g4 ,,the ,,epic   #g4 ,in outward form 
the epic poem is simply a narrative in  
verse4 ,historically it seems to have   
originated in the records of ancestral  
heroism1 which passed from mouth to     
mouth in metre1 as the natural form of  
oral communication in an unlettered age4

 ,in the ,iliad and ,odyssey we first   
find this outward form penetrated by a  
new spirit1 which converts the narrative
 into the poem4 ,there is no need to do 
violence to historical probability by   
supposing that ,homer was a conscious   
artist1 or that he imagined himself to  
be doing anything else than representing
 events as they happened4 ,we have      
simply to notice that in him facts have 
become poetry1 and to ask ourselves what
 constitutes the change4 ,how is it that
 the epic poet1 while holding up the    
mirror to nature1 yet shows us in the   
glass a glory which belongs not to      
nature as we see it1 in its material    
limitations8 ,the answer is1 that though
 he follows the essential laws of the   
human spirit1 his scene is not the earth
 we live in4 ,he fills it with actors   
other than the men who hoard and sleep  
and feed around us4 ,he places the      
action either in heroic ages--in the    
past which was never present1 when gods 
were more human and men more divine--or 

in heavenly places1 and among the powers
 of the air4 ,the action is simple in   
proportion to its remoteness from the   
reality of life1 and rapid in proportion
 to its simplicity4 ,it arises from the 
operation of the most elementary        
passions1 the wrath of ,achilles or the 
pride of ,satan1 in collision with an   
overruling power4 ,for the animal wants 
and tricks of fortune1 which entangle   
the web of man's affairs1 it has no     
place4 ,the animal element1 if not      
banished from view altogether1 becomes  
merely the organ of the ruling motions  
of the spirit2 and fortune is lost in   
destiny or providence4 ,thus the        
incidents of the narrative cease to be  
mere incidents4 ,they are held together 
by passion2 they are themselves1 so to  
speak1 manifestations of passion working
 with more and more intensity to the    
final consummation4 ,not the laws which 
regulate curiosity1 but those which     
regulate hope and awe1 are the laws     
which they have to satisfy4     ,h4     

,,tragedy ,,as ,,purifier ,,of ,,the    
,,passions   #h4 ,in tragedy1 as the    
product of a more cultivated age1 these 
characteristics appear more strongly    
than in the primitive epic4 ,the        
,homeric poems are still legendary      
narratives1 though narratives           
unconsciously transmuted by the highest 
art4 ,tragedy1 on the contrary1 has no  
extraneous elements4 ,it implies a      
conscious effort of the spirit1 made for
 its own sake1 to re-create human life  
according to spiritual laws2 to         
transport itself from a world1 where    
chance and appetite seem hourly to give 
the lie to its self-assertion1 into one 
where it may work unimpeded by anything 
but the antagonism inherent in itself   
and the presence of an overruling law4  
,this result is attained simply by the  
action of the proper instruments of     
thought1 abstraction and synthesis4 ,the
 tragedian presents to us scenes of     
life1 not its continuous flow of        
incident4 ,in ,macbeth1 for instance1   

there is an hiatus of some years between
 the earlier and later acts2#g but we   
are not sensible of the void2 for the   
passions which lead to the catastrophe  
are but the development of those which  
appear at the beginning1 and to the law 
against which they struggle a thousand  
years are but as yesterday4 ,time1      
however1 is but one among many          
circumstances which the tragedian       
ignores4 ,the common facts of life as it
 is1 and always must have been1 the     
influence of custom1 the transition of  
passion into mechanical habit1 the      
impossibility of continuous effort1 the 
necessary arrangements of society1 the  
wants of our animal nature and all that 
results from them1 these are excluded   
from view1 and so much only of the      
material of humanity is retained as can 
take its form from the action of the    
spirit1 and become a vehicle of pure    
passion4 ,but the synthesis keeps pace  
with the abstraction1 for the tragedian 
creates not passions but men4 ,the outer

 garment1 the flesh itself1 is stript   
off from man1 that the spirit may be    
left to re-clothe itself1 according to  
its proper impulses and its proper laws4
 ,the false distinctions of dress1 of   
manner1 of physiognomy1 are obliterated1
 that the true individuality which      
results from the internal modifications 
of passion may be seen in clearer       
outline4 ,these modifications are as    
infinite and as complex as the spirit of
 man itself2 and if the characters of   
the ancient dramatists1 in their broad  
simplicity1 fail to exhibit the finer   
lineaments of real life1 yet in         
,shakespeare the variations of pure     
passion are as numerous and as subtle as
 those of the fleshly or customary mask 
by which man thinks that he knows his   
neighbour4 ,the essential difference    
lies in the fact that they are          
variations of the spiritual1 not the    
animal1 man2 that they arise from the   
qualifications of the spirit by itself1 
not from its intermixture with matter4  

,it is this which gives tragedy its     
power over life4 ,the problem of the    
diabolic nature1 of the possibility of a
 fallen spirit1 is not for man to solve4
 ,he may be satisfied with the diagnosis
 of his own disease1 with the knowledge 
that it is his littleness1 not his      
greatness1 that separates him from the  
divine2 that not intellectual pride1 not
 spiritual self-assertion1 but the      
meanness of his ordinary desires1 the   
degradation of his higher nature to the 
pursuit of animal ends1 keep him under  
the curse4 ,from this curse tragedy1 in 
its measure1 helps to relieve him4 ,it  
purifies his passions#h by extricating  
them from their earthly immersion4 ,for 
an hour1 it may be1 or a day1 it raises 
him into a world of absolute ideality1  
where he may forget his wants and his   
vanity1 and lose himself in a struggle  
in which the combatants are the forces  
of the spirit1 and of which the end is  
that annihilation in collision with     
destiny which is but the blank side of  

reconciliation with it4 ,and though his 
sojourn in this region be short1 yet1   
when he falls again1 the smell of the   
divine fire has passed upon him1 and he 
bears about him1 for a time at least1   
among the rank vapours of the earth1    
something of the freshness and fragrance
 of the higher air4  ,,footnotes3  #g   
,the actual time represented in the play
 has been calculated to be nine days1   
with intervals of a week or two between 
,acts ,,ii and ,,iii1 scenes ii and iii 
of ,act ,,iv1 and scenes i and ii of    
,act ,v4 ,see ,new ,shakespeare ,society
 ,publications1 #ahgg-gi4  #h ,the      
phrase is ,aristotle's2 cf4 the         
',poetics1' ,chap4 vi1 and1 for comment1
 ,butcher's ',aristotle's ,theory of    
,poetry and ,fine ,art1' ,chapter vi4   
,i4 ,,tragedy ,,the ,,elevation ,,of    
,,life   #i4 ,in this sense1 then1      
tragedy satisfies its definition as the 
flight or elevation of life4 ,the two   
indispensable supports which render this
 elevation possible1 are metrical       

expression and great situations4 ,in the
 regeneration the language of the       
market-place and the morning call may   
answer to the realised harmony of life2 
there may1 indeed1 be the fifth act of a
 tragedy in every death-bed2 there may  
be no distinction of great or little1   
high or low4 ,but it is an affectation  
to confound what shall be with what is4 
,we cannot dissociate ordinary incidents
 from the petty wants out of which they 
ordinarily spring1 nor common language  
from the common-place thoughts which it 
usually expresses4 ,the action in       
tragedy must be relative to the         
situation2 and if the situation be one  
which we are unable to separate from    
matter-of-fact associations1 neither can
 the action be so separated except by an
 effort which of itself depresses the   
soaring spirit4 ,nor1 again1 if the     
action be high-wrought1 above the       
measure of man's ordinary activity1 can 
it find expression in the unrhythmical  
language#i which corresponds to that    

ordinary activity4 ,new wine must not be
 put in old bottles2 nor must the       
motions of disenthralled passion be     
confined in vessels worn by the uses of 
daily life4  ,,footnote3  #i ,the       
language of prose is not necessarily    
unrhythmical1 nor is it always          
commonplace1 as witness1 for example1   
the more moving and imaginative passages
 of the ,english ,bible4 ,on this point 
consult ,gummere's ',beginnings of      
,poetry1' ,chapter ii 7,rhythm as the   
,essential ,fact of ,poetry1 especially 
pp4 #ef-fj72 ,watts's article ',poetry' 
in the ,encyclopdia ,britannica2 and the
 ,publications of the ,modern ,language 
,association1 xx4 #d4     ,j4           
,,conditions ,,favorable ,,to ,,tragedy 
#aj4 ,these considerations may explain  
to us why the production of a great     
tragedy is almost an impossibility in   
our own time4 ,the age most favourable  
to it would seem to be one in which men 
stand on the edge of an old and but     
half-known world--as ,aeschylus and     

,sophocles stood on the edge of the     
mythologic1 ,shakespeare on that of the 
feudal world--an age of sufficient      
culture and reflection for men to be    
conscious of the glory they have left   
behind1 while yet civilisation has not  
reached the stage of acquiescence in    
things as they are1 and scepticism as to
 all beyond them4 ,those great          
situations furnished by the mysterious  
past1 in which passion quits the earth1 
soon lose their charm1 and with the     
reign of wonder that of tragedy ceases4 
,at ,athens it gives place to the new   
comedy1 whose highest boast was to copy 
present life 7,greek3  ,menandre kai    
,bie1 poteros ar' humn poteron          
apemimsato273#aj in modern ,europe it   
has yielded to the novel4  ,,footnote3  
#aj ,a saying of ,aristophanes1 the     
,grammarian1 quoted by ,syrianus on     
,hermogenes1 ,,iv4 #aja4 ,it may be     
translated3 ,o ,menander and ,life6     
,which of you copies the other8         
,,ii4 ,,the ,,novel ,,an ,,inferior     

,,form ,,of ,,art     ,a4 ,,beginnings  
,,of ,,the ,,novel   #aa4 ,the novel in 
its proper shape did not come to the    
birth in ,england till the time of      
,fielding and ,richardson1 but it had   
long been in process of formation4 ,the 
seventeenth century at its close had    
lost the tragic impulse of its youth4   
,the ecstatic hope of a new world1      
combined with the sad and wondering     
recollection of the old1 which had      
raised the human spirit to the height of
 the ,shakesperian tragedy1 had died    
out1 and the age had become eminently   
satisfied with itself4 ,wits1           
philosophers1 and poets1 alike were full
 of the present time4 ,while the wits   
complimented each other on their        
superiority to the weaknesses of        
mankind1 they made no scruple of        
indulging those weaknesses in their own 
persons4 ,it was part of their business 
to do so1 for it was part of life4 ,the 
only difference between them and other  
men was that they were weak and laughed 

over it1 while others were weak and     
serious4 ,philosophers congratulated    
themselves on their new enlightenment2  
but it was an enlightenment which gave  
them insight into things as they are1   
not as they are to be4 ,the proper study
 of mankind1 they held was man2 man1    
however1 not in his boundless promise1  
but in the mean performance with which  
they proclaimed themselves satisfied4   
,the poetry of the time was1 at best1   
merely common-sense with ornamentation4 
,it was neither lyrical nor tragic1     
though it may have tried to be both4 ,it
 represented man neither as withdrawn   
into himself1 nor as transported into an
 ideal world of action1 but as observing
 and reasoning on his present affairs4  
,the satire and moral essay were its    
characteristic forms4     ,b4           
,,characteristics ,,of ,,the ,,spectator
   #ab4 ,the most pleasing expression of
 this self-satisfaction of the age is   
found in the ,spectator1 the first and  
best representative of that special     

style of literature--the only really    
popular literature of our time--which   
consists in talking to the public about 
itself4 ,humanity is taken as reflected 
in the ordinary life of men2 and1 as    
thus reflected1 it is copied with the   
most minute fidelity4 ,no attempt is    
made either to suppress the baser       
elements of man's nature1 or to         
transfigure them by a stronger light    
than that of the common understanding4  
,no deeper laws are recognised than     
those which vindicate themselves to the 
eye of daily observation1 no motives    
purer than the mixed ones which the     
practical philosopher delights to       
analyse1 no life higher than that which 
is qualified by animal wants4 ,the      
reader never finds himself carried into 
a region where it requires an effort to 
travel1 or which is above the existing  
level of opinion and morality4 ,it is   
from this levelness with life that the  
,spectator derives its interest--an     
interest so nearly the same1 barring the

 absence of plot1 with that of the      
novel1 as to lead ,macaulay to pronounce
 ,addison the forerunner of the great   
,english novelists4#aa ,the elements of 
the novel1 indeed1 already existed in   
,addison's time1 and only required      
combination4 ,fictitious biography1     
which may be regarded as its raw        
material1 had been written by ,defoe    
with a life-like reality which has never
 since been equalled2 and the popular   
drama furnished plots1 in the shape of  
love stories drawn from present life4   
,let the adventures of the fictitious   
biography1 instead of being merely      
external to the man1 as in ,defoe1 be   
made subservient to that display of     
character in which ,addison had shown   
himself a master1 and let them become   
steps in the development of a love-plot1
 and the novel--the novel of the last   
century1 at any rate--is fully formed4  
,as was the self-contented1 and         
therefore uncreative and prosaic1       
thought of the age1 which produced the  

novel1 such the novel itself continued  
to be4 ,man1 comfortable and            
acquiescent1 wished to amuse himself by 
a reflex of the life which he no longer 
aspired to transcend4 ,he wanted to     
enjoy himself twice over--in act and in 
fancy2 or1 if the former were denied    
him1 at least to explore in fancy the   
world of pleasure and excitement1 of    
which circumstances abridged or         
disturbed his enjoyment in fact4 ,in the
 smooth tale1 generally of love1#ab the 
novelist supplied the want4             
,,footnotes3  #aa ,we have not the least
 doubt that1 if ,addison had written a  
novel1 on an extensive plan1 it would   
have been superior to any that we       
possess4 ,as it is1 he is entitled to be
 considered1 not only as the greatest of
 the ,english essayists1 but as the     
forerunner of the great ,english        
novelists4--,macaulay1 ',life and       
writings of ,addison4'  #ab ,a small    
tale1 generally of love4--,johnson's    
,dictionary4     ,c4 ,,the ,,modern     

,,novel ,a ,,reflection ,,of ,,ordinary 
,,life   #ac4 ,this ,johnsonian         
definition may be objected to as merely 
accidental1 and as inconsistent with the
 romantic character which the novel     
assumed in the hands of ,sir ,walter    
,scott4 ,it expresses1 however1         
adequately enough the view which the    
popular novelists prior to ,scott took  
of their own productions4 ,cervantes1   
though in his own great work attaining  
that rhapsody of grotesqueness which    
lies on the edge of poetry1 had yet     
established the idea of the novel as the
 antithesis of romance4 ,these          
novelists1 accordingly1 if they are not 
always telling the reader 7like         
,fielding71 seem yet to be always       
thinking to themselves1 how perfectly   
natural their stories are4 ,it is on    
this naturalness they pride themselves2 
and naturalness1 in their sense1 meant  
conformity to nature as it is commonly  
seen4 ,this is the characteristic       
feature of the class4 ,whether1 like    

,richardson1 they analyse character from
 within1 or1 like ,miss ,austen1 develop
 it in the outward particularities of an
 unruffled life--whether they describe1 
like ,fielding1 the buoyancy of a       
generous animalism1 or1 like ,miss      
,edgeworth and ,miss ,burney1 the       
precise decencies of conventional       
morality--they deal simply with         
eighteenth-century life as seen by      
eighteenth-century eyesight4 ,all       
romantic virtue1 all idealised passion1 
they rigorously eschew4 ,prudence they  
make the guide1 happiness the end1 of   
life4 ,and they do well4 ,they undertake
 to copy present life1 and they do so4  
,they have to reflect man's habitual    
consciousness2 it is not for them to    
anticipate a consciousness which has not
 yet been attained1 or to represent     
man's lower nature as absorbed in a     
spiritual movement which1 because we    
cannot arrest it1 we habitually ignore4 
,it is just their deficiency in this    
respect which gives them their peculiar 

fascination4 ,man is not really mere    
man1 though he may think himself so4 ,he
 is always something potentially1 which 
he is not actually2 always inadequate to
 himself2 and as such1 disturbed and    
miserable4 ,the novel1 on the contrary1 
represents him as being what he vainly  
tries to be--adequate to himself4 ,it   
offers to his imagination the full      
enjoyment of earthly life1 unchallenged 
by obstinate surmises1 untroubled by    
yearnings after the divine4 ,ordinary   
men are satisfied with this enjoyment2  
the highest are allured by its          
temptation4 ,the reading public is      
charmed with the contemplation of its   
own likeness1 twice as natural as life4 
,its own wisdom1 its own wishes1 its own
 vanity1 are set before it in little    
with a completeness and finish which the
 deeper laws of the universe1           
vindicating themselves by apparent      
disorder and misfortune1 happily prevent
 from being attained in real life4#ac   
,it is thus pleasantly flattered into   

contentment with itself--a contentment  
not disturbed by the occasional censure 
of practices which good taste condemns  
as ungraceful1 or prudence as           
prejudicial to happiness4 ,but the man  
of keener insight1 who1 instead of      
wrestling with the riddle of life1 seeks
 for a time to forget it1 and to place  
in its stead the rounded representation 
of activity which the novelist supplies1
 cannot but find the vanity of hiding   
his face from the presence which he     
dreads4 ,out of heart with the world    
about him--conscious of its actual      
meanness1 and without vigor to re-cast  
it in the mould of his own thought--he  
fancies that after a sojourn in the     
world of fiction he may come back braced
 for his struggle with life4 ,in his    
study1 with a novel1 he hopes to        
overlook the walls of his prison-house1 
to see the beginning and the end of     
human strife4 ,but he soon finds himself
 in the embrace of the very power which 
he sought to escape4 ,here is the world 

itself brought back to him4 ,here is a  
perfect copy of that which in actual    
experience he sees but partially4 ,the  
mirror is but too truly held up to      
nature4 ,the getting and spending1 the  
marrying and giving in marriage1 the    
dominion of fortune which makes life a  
riddle1 the prudential motives and      
worship of happiness which hide its     
divinity1 these meet him here as they   
meet him in life1 untransmuted1         
unidealised4 ,yet the charm of art      
overcomes him4 ,the perfectness of the  
representation1 the skill with which the
 incidents are combined to result in a  
crowning happiness behind which no      
sorrow seems to lie1 make him find a    
pleasure in the copy which he cannot    
find in actual life1 when in personal   
and painful collision with it4 ,but     
meanwhile he gains no real strength1 he 
readies no new height of contemplation4 
,he comes back to the world1 as a man   
with a diseased digestion1 after living 
for a time on spiced meats1 comes back  

to ordinary food4 ,he has not braced the
 assimilative power of his thought by a 
flight into the ideal world1 or learnt  
even for a time to turn matter to spirit
 by sublimation strange4 ,he has        
remained on the earth1 and though his   
fancy has for the hour given the earth a
 charm1 he is no better able than he was
 before to raise his eyes from its dead 
level1 or remove the limits of its      
horizon4   #ad4 ,thus1 then1 the old    
quarrel of the philosopher with the     
imitative arts seems to be revived in   
respect of the novel4 ,but though       
novel-writers might be banished from a  
new republic1#ad it would not be as     
artists1 but for the inferiority of     
their art4 ,an artist indeed the        
novelist is2 he combines events and     
persons with reference to ends2 he      
concentrates into a dialogue of a few   
sentences an amount of feeling and      
character which it would take real men  
some hours to express2 he imparts a     
rapidity to the stream of incident quite

 unlike the sluggishness of our daily   
experience4 ,in this sense he does not  
copy what we see1 but shows us what we  
can not see for ourselves4 ,our         
complaint against him is that the aspect
 of things which he shows us is merely  
the outward and natural1 as opposed to  
the inner or ideal4 ,his answer would   
probably be either that the ideal1 in   
any sense in which it can be opposed to 
the natural1 must be false and delusive2
 or that it is merely an accident of    
novel-writing1 as hitherto practised1   
and not anything essential to this      
species of composition1 which has       
prevented it from exhibiting the highest
 aspect of things2 or1 finally1 that    
admitting the view which the novel      
presents to be necessarily lower than   
the poetic1 it yet is a more useful view
 for man to contemplate4  ,,footnotes3  
#ac ,this rather obscure phrase may be  
interpreted as follows3 ,the average man
 would like to live such a rounded and  
symmetrical life as is portrayed in the 

novel4 ,he would like to see his wisdom 
justifying itself1 his vanity           
triumphant1 his selfishness achieving   
its end2 and he thinks that his cravings
 are being satisfied4 ,but the deeper   
laws of the universe will not be balked1
 they are lying in wait4 ,and presently 
when he thinks1 good easy man1 his      
little bourgeois world is rounding into 
the perfect sphere1 they spring up in   
his path1 shatter his sugar-candy       
paradise1 and ruthlessly vindicate      
themselves 7that is1 prove that they    
cannot be disregarded1 that they must be
 reckoned with7 by bringing into his    
life disorder and misfortune4  #ad ,as  
poets were from the republic of ,plato4 
,when any one of these pantomimic       
gentlemen1 who are so clever that they  
can imitate anything1 comes to us1 and  
makes a proposal to exhibit himself and 
his poetry1 we will fall down and       
worship him as a sweet and holy and     
wonderful being2 but we must also inform
 him that in our state such as he are   

not permitted to exist2 the law will not
 allow them4 ,and so when we have       
anointed him with myrrh1 and set a      
garland of wool upon his head1 we shall 
send him away to another city4 ,for we  
mean to employ for our souls' health the
 rougher and severer poet or            
story-teller1 who will imitate the style
 of the virtuous only1 and will follow  
those models which we prescribed at     
first when we began the education of our
 soldiers4--,plato1 ',republic1' ,,iii4 
#cih4     ,d4 ,,naturalism vs4          
,,idealism   #ae4 ,much fruitless       
controversy between naturalism and      
idealism in art might have been saved by
 a consideration of the true character  
of the antithesis4 ,it becomes unmeaning
 as soon as nature is expanded to the   
fulness of the idea4 ,and so expanded it
 may be1 for1 according to the old      
formula1 it is always in flux4 ,it is   
never in being1 always in becoming4 ,as 
has been already pointed out1 it is what
 we see2 and we see according to higher 

and lower laws of vision4 ,we may look  
at man and the world either from without
 or from within4 ,we may observe man's  
actions like other phenomena1 and from  
observation learn to ascribe them to    
certain general but distinct motives and
 faculties1 which we do not refer to any
 higher unity2 or1 on the other hand1 by
 the light of our own consciousness we  
may recognise that in man of which no   
observation of his actions could tell   
us--something which is in him1 but yet  
is not his own2 which combines with all 
his faculties1 but is none of them2     
which gives them a unity1 to which their
 diversity is merely relative4 ,so again
 with regard to the phenomena of the    
world2 we may look on these either      
simply as phenomena1 or as              
manifestations of destiny or divine     
will4 ,the former view of man and the   
world we may conveniently call natural1 
because the only view that mere         
observation can give us2 the latter     
ideal1 because making observation       

posterior to something given in thought4
     ,e4 ,,tragedy ,,and ,,the ,,novel  
#af4 ,the tragedian1 then1 idealises1   
because he starts from within4 ,he      
reaches1 as it were1 the central fire1  
in the heat of which every separate     
faculty1 every animal want1 every       
fortuitous incident is melted down and  
lost4 ,we never could observe in actual 
experience passion such as ,lear's1 or  
meditation such as ,hamlet's1 fusing    
everything else into itself4 ,facts at  
every step would interfere to prevent   
such a possibility4 ,but let us place   
ourselves1 by the poet's help1 within   
the soul of ,lear or ,hamlet1 and we    
shall be able to follow the process by  
which the spiritual power1 taking the   
form of passion in the one1 and of      
thought in the other1 and working       
outwards1 draws everything into its own 
unity1 according to the same activity of
 which1 however impeded by the          
imperfections of matter1 we are         
conscious in ourselves4 ,the incidents  

of the tragedy are wholly subordinate1  
issuing either from this spiritual      
energy of the actors on the one hand1   
or1 on the other1 from destiny1 to whose
 throne the poet penetrates4 ,they thus 
present an aspect entirely different    
from that of events which we approach   
from without4 ,the novel1 on the        
contrary1 starts from the outside4 ,its 
main texture is a web of incidents      
through which the motions of the spirit 
must be discerned1 if discerned at all4 
,these incidents must be probable1 must 
be such as are consistent with the      
observed sequences of the world4 ,the   
view of man1 therefore1 which we attain 
through them1 can only be that which is 
attainable by observation of outward    
actions and events2 or1 in other words1 
according to the distinction which we   
have attempted to establish1 it is the  
natural view1 not the ideal4 ,its       
character corresponds to its origin4    
,observation shows us man not as        
self-determined1 but as the creature of 

circumstances1 as a phenomenon among    
other phenomena4 ,as such1 too1 he is   
presented to us in the novel4 ,we do not
 see him1 as in tragedy1 standing in the
 strength of his own spirit1 remaking   
the world by its power1 determined by it
 for good or evil1 dependent on it for  
all that may be attractive or repellent 
about him4 ,the hero of a novel attracts
 in part by his physiognomy1 his manner1
 or even his dress2 his character is    
qualified by circumstances and society2 
his impulses vary according to the      
impressions of outward things2 he is the
 sport of fortune1 dependent for weal or
 woe on the acquisition of some external
 blessing which the development of the  
plot may or may not bestow on him4 ,as  
circumstances make his life what it is1 
so the particular combination of        
circumstances1 called happiness1        
constitutes its end4 ,instead of losing 
his merely personal and particular self1
 as in the catastrophe of a tragedy1 he 
satisfies it with its appropriate       

pleasure4 ,he that loveth wife or       
children more than me1 is not worthy of 
me1 are the words of the ,author of the 
,christian life4 ,marry1 enjoy domestic 
bliss1 and thou hast attained the end of
 virtue--such is the ordinary moral of  
the ordinary novel2 nay1 the only       
consistent moral of the consistent      
novel4 ,as the novelist sows1 so must he
 reap2 as his plot is1 such must its    
consummation be4 ,in the body of the    
work he must1 from the nature of the    
case1 represent men as they appear in   
fact1 and he cannot fitly round it off  
by representing them as they are only in
 idea4 ,he cannot step at pleasure from 
one sphere of art to another2 by        
attempting to do so he destroys the     
harmony without which there is no art at
 all1 and leaves us with a sense of     
dissatisfaction and unreality4 ,the     
reader1 who through the whole three     
volumes till close upon the end has been
 travelling in an atmosphere of ordinary
 morality and every-day aspiration1     

knows not how in the last chapter to    
breathe the air of a higher life4       
,f4 ,,the ,,epic ,,and ,,the ,,novel    
#ag4 ,it may be objected to this        
limitation of the capabilities of the   
novel1 that it must stand on the same   
footing with the epic poem1 which is no 
less made up of a texture of incident1  
and which1 therefore1 according to the  
present argument1 can only reach the    
springs of man's actions from without4  
,such an objection has some truth with  
reference to the ,homeric poems4 ,these1
 as we have seen1 have the legendary    
narrative for their primitive element1  
and in so far as they are merely a      
reflex of ,greek life in the ,homeric   
age1 their interest is that of a novel1 
not properly of the epic4 ,the true epic
 7of which the ,paradise ,lost would    
seem to be a less mixed form than the   
,iliad or ,odyssey71 no less than       
tragedy1 seizes the idea of a           
self-determined spirit on the one hand1 
and of destiny or divine law on the     

other4 ,these are the primary springs   
from which it makes action and incident 
issue1 with a perfect subordination     
which the laws of our lower nature and  
of social life must prevent from being  
realised in the world of experience1 and
 which the novelist therefore1 tied down
 to the world of experience1 only       
offends us by attempting to exhibit4    
,the essential character of the novel is
 not changed by its assumption of the   
form of a romance4 ,in the romantic     
world of the middle ages1 the great     
,italian poets did indeed find their    
materials4 ,to their eyes it was a world
 in which hope and wonder might roam at 
large3 it furnished actions which1      
glorified by them1 became manifestations
 of the divine and heroic in man4 ,but  
it is another world as seen by the      
novelist1 even by such a one as ,walter 
,scott4 ,the romantic life which he     
depicts is simply the life which we see 
our own neighbors live1 with more       
picturesque situations1 with more to    

excite curiosity in the reader1 and     
activity in the imaginary hero4 ,we gain
 more from him1 it is true1 than from   
those copies of the too familiar faces  
around us which are the staple commodity
 in novels of the day4 ,he at least     
carries us into scenes of adventure1    
where we may forget the smooth tale of  
our nineteenth-century life4 ,but       
further he cannot go1 for he approaches 
men from without4 ,he does not reach1 by
 other methods than observation1 to any 
a priori affection of the spirit1 and to
 this subordinate incident4 ,had he done
 so1 he could not have uttered himself  
in the language of common life4 ,in the 
world of heroes or angels1 i4e41 of men 
idealised1 to which the epic poet raises
 us1 he sustains us by the power of     
verse4 ,the exalted action and the      
poetic expression are as essentially    
correlative in the epic1 as are the     
natural incident and the prosaic        
expression in the novel4     ,g4        
,,poetry ,,and ,,prose   #ah4 ,the      

hostility of ,wordsworth to the poetic  
diction of his time rested on principles
 of which he scarcely seems himself to  
have been conscious4#ae ,the poets of   
the last century had lost the genuine   
sense of their high calling4 ,their     
productions for the most part were1 at  
best1 practical philosophy in verse4    
,they observed the outer aspect of      
things1 and to make their observations  
poetry they clothed them in poetic      
diction1 which thus became offensive1   
because artificial--because a superadded
 ornament1 and not the natural          
expression of exalted passion or the    
emotion which accompanies our passage   
behind the veil4 ,repugnance to this    
artificiality misled ,wordsworth into   
the celebrated assertion that between   
the language of prose and that of       
metrical composition1 there neither is1 
nor can be1 any essential difference3 an
 assertion which1 as prompted by a      
feeling of the incompatibility of poetic
 language with prosaic thought1 is      

really a witness to the essential       
antithesis between poetry and prose4    
,verse is simple1 harmonious1 and       
unfamiliar4 ,it is thus the fitting     
organ for that energy of thought which  
simplifies the phenomena of life by     
referring them to a spiritual principle2
 which blends its shifting colours in   
the light of a master-passion1 and      
passes from the contradictory data of   
the common understanding to the unity of
 a deeper consciousness4 ,even the      
spiritualist philosopher1 no less than  
the poet1 would have to speak in verse1 
if1 instead of making statements1 he    
portrayed3 if1 besides asserting that   
all things are to be seen in ,god1 he   
sought to excite in the reader the      
emotion appropriate to the sight4 ,prose
 is the oratio soluta4 ,it is complex1  
irregular1 inharmonious4 ,it thus       
corresponds to the natural or phenomenal
 view of life2 the view of it1 that is1 
in its diversity1 as qualified in       
innumerable modes by animal wants and   

apparent accident1 and not harmonised by
 the action of the spirit4#af ,the      
novelist must express himself in prose1 
because this is his view of life3 and   
this must be his view of life1 because  
he thus expresses himself4 ,it is indeed
 a view which may vary according to the 
circumstances of the case1 but only     
within definite limits4 ,there is an    
earnestness about some of our modern    
novelists1 ,miss ,bront for instance1   
which would have seemed out of place to 
those of fifty years ago2 but this is   
merely because the life they see around 
them is more earnest4 ,it presents to   
them scenes of sterner significance than
 were to be found among the coquetry and
 dissipation of the fashionable world or
 the dull courtesies of a country house4
 ,but that they do not transcend this   
outward life we have one crucial proof4 
,just in so far as each of us learns to 
regard his own individual being from    
within1 and not from without1 does he   
discard dependence on happiness as      

arising from external circumstances1 and
 becomes already in idea1 as he tends to
 become in reality1 his own world and   
his own law4 ,no novelist attains to the
 assertion of this spiritual            
prerogative4 ,as we follow in sympathy  
the story of his hero1 we find ourselves
 lifted up and cast down as fortune     
changes1 our life brightening as the    
clouds break above1 and darkening as    
they close again4 ,if the author chooses
 to disappoint us with a bad ending1 he 
leaves us1 not as we are left at the    
conclusion of a tragedy1 purified from  
personal desires1 but vexed and         
sorrowful1 sadder but not wiser men4    
,,footnotes3  #ae ,humble and rustic    
life was generally chosen1 because in   
that condition the essential passions of
 the heart find a better soil in which  
they can attain their maturity1 are less
 under restraint1 and speak a plainer   
and more emphatic language2 because in  
that condition of life our elementary   
feelings co-exist in a state of greater 

simplicity1 and1 consequently1 may be   
more accurately contemplated1 and more  
forcibly communicated4444 ,the language1
 too1 of these men has been adopted     
7purified indeed from what appear to be 
its real defects1 from all lasting and  
rational causes of dislike or disgust71 
because such men hourly communicate with
 the best objects from which the best   
part of language is originally derived2 
and because1 from their rank in society 
and the sameness and narrow circle of   
their intercourse1 being less under the 
influence of social vanity1 they convey 
their feelings and notions in simple and
 unelaborated expressions4 ,accordingly1
 such a language arising out of repeated
 experience and regular feeling1 is a   
more permanent1 and a far more          
philosophical language1 than that which 
is frequently substituted for it by     
,poets1 who think that they are         
conferring honor upon themselves and    
their art in proportion as they separate
 themselves from the sympathies of men1 

and indulge in arbitrary and capricious 
habits of expression1 in order to       
furnish food for fickle tastes and      
fickle appetites of their own           
creation4--,wordsworth1 ,preface to the 
',lyrical ,ballads4'  #af ,on the       
relations of prose and poetry1 see      
,alden's ',an introduction to ,poetry1' 
pp4 #bc-bh1 #abh-ach1 #afj-afd1 and the 
references there given4     ,h4 ,,the   
,,novel ,,an ,,incomplete ,,presentation
 ,,of ,,life   #ai4 ,by the mere        
explanation of the difference between   
the ideal and the natural1 the poetic   
and novelistic1 views of the world1 we  
may seem to have already settled the    
question as to the beneficial effects of
 each4 ,the question1 be it observed1 is
 not as to the comparative influence of 
the discipline of art and that of real  
life4 ,the man who seeks his entire     
culture in art of any kind will soon    
find the old antagonism between         
speculation and action begin to appear4 
,there will be a chasm1 which he cannot 

fill1 between his life in the closet and
 his life in the world2 his impotence to
 carry his thought into act will limit  
and weaken the thought itself4 ,but this
 ill result will equally ensue1 whether 
the art in which he finds his nurture be
 that of the novelist or that of the    
poet4 ,the novel-reader sees human      
action pass before him like a panorama1 
but he feels none of its pains and      
penalties2 his fancy feeds on its       
pleasures1 but he has not to face the   
struggle of resistance to pleasure1 or  
the suffering which follows on          
indulgence4 ,nor is it merely from that 
weakness of effect which1 in one sense1 
must always belong to representation as 
opposed to reality1 that the novel      
suffers4 ,the representation itself is  
incomplete4 ,the novelist1 like every   
other artist1 must abridge and select4  
,for many of the elements whose action  
builds up our human soul1 there is no   
place in his canvas4 ,a great part of   
the discipline of life arises simply    

from its slowness4 ,the long years of   
patient waiting and silent labor1 the   
struggle with listlessness and pain1 the
 loss of time by illness1 the hope      
deferred1 the doubt that lays hold on   
delay--these are the tests of that      
pertinacity in man which is but a step  
below heroism4 ,the exhibition of them  
in the novel1 however1 is prevented by  
that rapidity of movement which is      
essential to its fascination2 and hence 
to one whose acquaintance with life was 
derived simply from novels1 its main    
business would be unknown4 ,they are    
perhaps more brought home to us by      
,defoe than by any other writer of      
fiction2 but this is due to that very   
deficiency of artistic power which makes
 his agglomeration of details#ag such   
heavy reading to all but school-boys4   
,,footnote3  #ag ,modern criticism      
inclines to the view that ,defoe's      
agglomeration of details is the result  
of high and conscious art4 ,if          
',robinson ,crusoe' were kept away from 

schoolboys it would doubtless be read   
pleasurably by adults4     ,i4          
,,prudence ,,the ,,novelist',s ,,highest
 ,,morality   #bj4 ,the novel1 then1 as 
being a work of art1 must fail to teach 
the lesson of life in its completeness3 
as an inferior work of art1 it has      
peculiar weaknesses of its own4 ,however
 extensive the influence of the         
literature of fiction may have been1 its
 intensity has been in inverse          
proportion4 ,a great poem1 once made our
 own1 abides with us for ever4          
,amid the fretful stir                  
,unprofitable1 and the fever of the     
world1#ah   the spirit1 returning to it1
 may gain a fresh assurance of its own  
birthright1 and purify itself1 as in a  
river of ,lethe1 for an ideal transition
 to its proper home4 ,the novel1 itself 
the reflex of the fretful stir          
unprofitable1 can exercise no such      
power4 ,it can but make us more at home 
in the region from which a great poem   
transports us4 ,the value of that       

experience of the world1 which it is its
 object to impart1 is commonly overrated
 in our day4 ,in the form in which it is
 imparted by the novelist1 we have      
perhaps had too much of it without his  
aid4 ,our external environment is quite 
enough in our thoughts3 we are not too  
reluctant to admit that we are what we  
seem to be1 dependent for good or evil  
on circumstances which we do not make   
for ourselves4 ,this dependence is in   
itself1 no doubt1 a fact2 but it ceases 
to be so for us when we contemplate it  
in forgetfulness of that spring of      
potential freedom which underlies it1   
and of the law of duty correlative to   
freedom4 ,to the exclusive consideration
 of it we owe those profitless recipes  
for eliciting moral health from         
circumstances which are the plague of   
modern literature1 and which one of our 
ablest writers has lately condescended  
to dispense1 in an essay on organisation
 in daily life4 ,this circumstantial    
view of life1 if we may use the term1   

being the only one that the novelist can
 convey1 prudence is his highest        
morality4 ,but it may be doubted whether
 prudence is what any one has great need
 to learn4 ,the plain man1 who fronting 
circumstances boldly on the one hand1   
looks reverently to the stern face of   
duty on the other1 can dispense with its
 maxims4 ,for the moral valetudinarian  
small benefit is to be gained from a    
doctor who will        ,read each wound1
 each weakness clear1      ,will strike 
his finger on the place      ,and say1  
',thou ailest here and here'4#ai   ,it  
is far better for him1 instead of poring
 over a detail of the causes and        
symptoms of the disease which he hugs1  
to be stimulated to an effort in which1 
though it be but temporary1 ecstatic1   
and for an end not actually attainable1 
he may at least forget the disease      
altogether4 ,such a stimulus a great    
poem may afford him2 but in the whole   
expanse of novel-literature he merely   
sees his own sickly experience modified 

in an infinite variety of reflections1  
till he fancies that the strange disease
 of modern life is the proper           
constitution of ,god's universe4        
,,footnotes3  #ah                       
,when the fretful stir                  
,unprofitable1 and the fever of the     
world      ,have hung upon the beatings 
of my heart4                            
--,wordsworth1 ',tintern ,abbey4'  #ai  
,matthew ,arnold's ',memorial ,verses1' 
lines #bj-bb1 adapted to the context4   
,j4 ,,evil ,,effects ,,of               
,,novel-,,reading   #ba4 ,novel-reading 
thus aggravates two of the worst        
maladies of modern times1               
self-consciousness and want of          
reverence4 ,many a man in these days1   
instead of doing some sound piece of    
work for mankind1 spends his time in    
explaining to himself why it is that he 
does not do it1 and how1 after all1 he  
is superior to those who do4 ,even men  
of a higher sort never seem to forget   
themselves in their work4 ,our popular  

writers generally take the reader into  
confidence as to their private feelings 
as they go along2 our men of action are 
burdened by a sense of their reputation 
with intelligent circles4 ,no one loses 
himself in a cause4 ,scarcely           
understanding what is meant by a divine 
indifference as to the fate of          
individual existences in the evolution  
of ,god's plan1 we weary heaven with    
complaints that we find the world       
contrary1 or that we cannot satisfy     
ourselves with a theory of life4 ,thus  
measuring ourselves by ourselves1 and   
comparing ourselves among ourselves1 we 
are not wise4 ,the novel furnishes the  
standard for the measurement1 and the   
data for the comparison4 ,it presents us
 with a series of fictitious            
experiences1 in the light of which we   
read our own1 and become more critically
 conscious of them4 ,instead of         
idealising life1 if we may so express   
ourselves1 it sentimentalises it4 ,it   
does not subordinate incidents to ideas2

 yet it does not treat them simply as   
phenomena to excite curiosity1 but as   
misfortunes or blessings to excite      
sentiment4 ,the writer of the ,mill on  
the ,floss reaches almost the tragic    
pitch towards the close of her book1 and
 if she had been content to leave us    
with the death of the heroine and her   
brother#bj in the flood1 we might have  
supposed that in this case1 as          
representing the annihilation of human  
passion in the struggle with destiny1   
the novelist had indeed attained the    
ideal view of life4 ,but the novelistic 
instinct does not allow her to do so4   
,at the conclusion we are shown the     
other chief actors standing1 with       
appropriate emotions1 over the heroine's
 grave1 and thus find that the          
catastrophe has not really been the     
manifestation of an idea1 but an        
occasion of sentiment4 ,the habitual    
novel-reader1 from thus looking         
sentimentally at the fictitious life    
which is the reflex of his own1 soon    

comes to look sentimentally at himself4 
,he thinks his personal joys and sorrows
 of interest to angels and men2 and     
instead of gazing with awe and          
exultation upon the world1 as a theatre 
for the display of ,god's glory and the 
unknown might of man1 he sees in it     
merely an organism for affecting himself
 with pains and pleasures4 ,thus        
regarded1 it must needs lose its claim  
on his reverence1 for it is narrowed to 
the limits of his own consciousness4    
,conversant with present life in all its
 outward aspects1 he forgets the        
infinite spaces which lie around and    
above it4 ,this confinement of view1    
which among the more intelligent appears
 merely as disbelief in the             
possibilities of man1 takes a more      
offensive form in the complacent        
blindness of ordinary minds4 ,we have no
 wish to disparage our own age in       
comparison with any that have preceded  
it4 ,young men have always been         
ignorant1 and ignorance has always been 

conceited4 ,there is1 however1 this     
difference4 ,the ignorant young men of  
past time1 such as the five sons of ,sir
 ,hildebrand ,osbaldistone1#ba knew that
 they were ignorant1 but thought it no  
shame3 the ignorant young men of our    
days1 with the miscellaneous knowledge  
of life which they derive from the      
popular novelists1 fancy themselves     
wiser than the aged4 ,whoever be the    
philosopher1 the coxcomb nowadays will  
answer him not merely with a grin1 but  
with a joke which he has still in       
lavender from ,dickens or his imitators4
 ,the comic aspect of life is indeed    
plain enough to see1 nor is the merely  
pathetic much less obvious2 but there is
 little good in looking at either4 ,it  
is far easier to laugh or to weep than  
to think2 to give either a ludicrous or 
sentimental turn to a great principle of
 morals or religion than to enter into  
its real meaning4 ,but the vulgar reader
 of our comic novelists1 when he has    
learnt from them a jest or a sentiment  

for every occasion of life1 fancies that
 nothing more remains unseen and unsaid4
  ,,footnotes3  #bj ,lover in the       
original text of the essay4 ,the error  
does not much affect the argument4  #ba 
,in ,scott's ',rob ,roy4'     ,,iii4    
,,true ,,function ,,of ,,the ,,novel    
,a4 ,a ,,widener ,,of ,,experience      
#bb4 ,but there is another side to this 
question which we must not allow        
ourselves to overlook4 ,we have shown   
what the novel cannot do1 and its ill   
effect on those who trust to it for     
their culture4 ,we must not forget that 
it has a proper work of its own which1  
if modern progress be anything more than
 a euphemism1 must be a work for good4  
,least of all should it be depreciated  
by the student1 who may find in it      
deliverance from the necessary          
confinement of his actual life4 ,for the
 production of poetic effect1 as we have
 seen1 large abstraction is necessary4  
,it is with man in the purity of his    
inward being1 with nature in its simple 

greatness1 that the poet deals4 ,the    
glory which he casts on life is far     
higher than any which the novelist      
knows1 but it is only on certain of the 
elements of life that it can be cast at 
all4 ,the novelist works on a far wider 
field4 ,with choice of subject and      
situation he scarcely need trouble      
himself1 except in regard to his own    
intellectual qualifications4 ,wherever  
human thought is free1 and human        
character can display itself1 whether in
 the servants' hall or the drawing-room1
 whether in the country mansion or the  
back alley1 he may find his materials4  
,he is thus a great expander of         
sympathies2 and if he cannot help us to 
make the world our own by the power of  
ideas1 he at least carries our thought  
into many a far country of human        
experience1 which it could not otherwise
 have reached4 ,we hear much in these   
days of the sacrifice of the individual 
to society through professional         
limitations4 ,in the progressive        

division of labor1 while we become more 
useful as citizens1 we seem to lose our 
completeness as men4 ,the requirements  
of special study become more exacting1  
at the same time that the perfect       
organisation of modern society removes  
the excitement of adventure and the     
occasion for independent effort4 ,there 
is less of human interest to touch us   
within our calling1 and we have less    
leisure to seek it beyond4 ,hence it    
follows that one who has made the most  
of his profession is apt to feel that he
 has not attained his full stature as a 
man2 that he has faculties which he can 
never use1 capacities for admiration and
 affection which can never meet with an 
adequate object4 ,to this feeling1      
probably1 are mainly due our            
lamentations over a past age of         
hero-worship and romance1 when action   
was more decisive and passion a fuller  
stream4 ,its alleviation1 if not its    
remedy1 is to be found in the newspaper 
and the novel4 ,every one indeed must   

lay in his own experience the foundation
 of the imaginary world which he rears  
for himself4 ,there is a primary virtue 
which cannot be taught4 ,no man can     
learn from another the meaning of human 
activity or the possibilities of human  
emotion4 ,but this ,greek3 pou st being 
given1 even the cloistered student may  
find that1 as his soul passes into the  
strife of social forces and the         
complication of individual experience1  
which the newspaper and the novel       
severally represent1 his sympathies     
break from the bondage of his personal  
situation and reach to the utmost       
confines of human life4 ,the personal   
experience and the fictitious act and   
react on each other1 the personal       
experience giving reality to the        
fictitious1 the fictitious expansion to 
the personal4 ,he need no longer envy   
the man of action and adventure1 or sigh
 for new regions of enterprise4 ,the    
world is all before him4 ,he may explore
 its recesses without being disturbed by

 its passions2 and if the end of        
experience be the knowledge of ,god's   
garment1 as preliminary to that of ,god 
,himself1 his eye may be as well trained
 for the vision beatific1 as if he had  
himself been an actor in the scenes to  
which imagination transfers him4     ,b4
 ,,an ,,expander ,,of ,,sympathies      
#bc4 ,the novelist not only works on    
more various elements1 he appeals to    
more ordinary minds than the poet4 ,this
 indeed is the strongest practical proof
 of his essential inferiority as an     
artist4 ,all who are capable of an      
interest in incidents of life which do  
not affect themselves1 may feel the same
 interest more keenly in a novel2 but to
 those only who can lift the curtain    
does a poem speak intelligibly4 ,it is  
the twofold characteristic1 of universal
 intelligibility and indiscriminate     
adoption of materials1 that gives the   
novel its place as the great reformer   
and leveller of our time4 ,reforming and
 levelling are indeed more closely      

allied than we are commonly disposed to 
admit4 ,social abuses are nearly always 
the result of defective organisation4   
,the demarcations of family1 of         
territory1 or of class1 prevent the     
proper fusion of parts into the whole4  
,the work of the reformer progresses as 
the social force is brought to bear more
 and more fully on classes and          
individuals1 merging distinctions of    
privilege and position in the one social
 organism4 ,the novel is one of the main
 agencies through which this force acts4
 ,it gathers up manifold experiences1   
corresponding to manifold situations of 
life2 and subordinating each to the     
whole1 gives to every particular        
situation a new character1 as qualified 
by all the rest4 ,every good novel1     
therefore1 does something to check what 
may be called the despotism of          
situations2 to prevent that ossification
 into prejudices arising from situation1
 to which all feel a tendency4 ,the     
general novel literature of any age may 

be regarded as an assertion by mankind  
at large1 in its then development1 of   
its claims1 as against the influence of 
class and position2 whether that        
influence appear in the form of positive
 social injustice1 of oppressive custom1
 or simply of deficient sympathy4  #bd4 
,to be what he is1 the novelist must be 
a man with large powers of sympathetic  
observation4 ,he must have an eye for   
the humanities which underlie the       
estranging barriers of social           
demarcation1 and in relation to which   
the influence of those barriers can     
alone be rightly appreciated4 ,we have  
already spoken of that acquiescence in  
the dominion of circumstance1 to which  
we are all too ready to give way1 and   
which exclusive novel-reading tends to  
foster4 ,the circumstances1 however1    
whose rule we recognise1 are apt to be  
merely our own or those of our class4   
,we are blind to other idola than those 
of our own cave2 we do not understand   
that the feelings which betray us into  

indiscretions may1 when differently     
modified by a different situation1 lead 
others to game-stealing or              
trade-outrages4 ,from this narrowness of
 view the novelist may do much to       
deliver us4 ,the variations of feeling  
and action with those of circumstance1  
and the essential human identity which  
these variations cannot touch1 are his  
special province4 ,he shows us that     
crime does not always imply sin1 that a 
social heresy may be the assertion of a 
native right1 that an offence which     
leads to conventional outlawry may be   
merely the rebellion of a generous      
nature against conventional tyranny4    
,thus1 if he does not do everything1 he 
does much4 ,though he cannot reveal to  
us the inner side of life1 he at least  
gives a more adequate conception of its 
surface4 ,though he cannot raise us to a
 point of view from which circumstances 
appear subordinate to spiritual laws1 he
 yet saves us from being blinded1 if not
 from being influenced1 by the          

circumstances of our own position4      
,though he cannot show the prisoners the
 way of escape from their earthly       
confinement1 yet by breaking down the   
partitions between the cells he enables 
them to combine their strength for a    
better arrangement of the prison-house4 
,the most wounding social wrongs more   
often arise from ignorance than from    
malice1 from acquiescence in the opinion
 of a class rather than from deliberate 
selfishness4 ,the master cannot enter   
into the feelings of the servant1 nor   
the servant into those of his master4   
,the master cannot understand how any   
good quality can lead one to forget his 
station2 to the servant the spirit of   
management in the master seems mere     
driving4 ,this is only a sample of what 
is going on all society over4 ,the      
relation between the higher and lower   
classes becomes irritating1 and         
therefore injurious1 not from any       
conscious unfairness on either side1 but
 simply from the want of a common       

understanding2 while at the same time   
every class suffers within its own      
limits from the prevalence of habits and
 ideas1 under the authority of          
class-convention1 which could not long  
maintain themselves if once placed in   
the light of general opinion4 ,against  
this twofold oppression1 the novel1 from
 its first establishment as a           
substantive branch of literature1 has   
made vigorous war4 ,from ,defoe to      
,kingsley its history boasts of a noble 
army of social reformers2 yet the work  
which these writers have achieved has   
had little to do with the               
morals--commonly valueless1 if not false
 and sentimental--which they have       
severally believed themselves to convey4
 ,defoe's notion of a moral seems to    
have been the vulgar one that vice must 
be palpably punished and virtue         
rewarded2 he recommends his ,moll       
,flanders to the reader on the ground   
that there is not a wicked action in any
 part of it but is first or last        

rendered unhappy and#bb unfortunate4    
,the moral of ,fielding's novels1 if    
moral it can be called1 is simply the   
importance of that prudence which his   
heroes might have dispensed with1 but   
for the wildness of their animal        
license4 ,yet both ,defoe and ,fielding 
had a real lesson to teach mankind4 ,the
 thieves and harlots whom ,defoe prides 
himself on punishing1 but whose         
adventures he describes with the        
minuteness of affection1 are what we    
ourselves might have been2 and in their 
histories we hear1 if not the music1 yet
 the harsh and grating cry of suffering 
humanity4 ,fielding's merit is of the   
same kind2 but the sympathies which he  
excites are more general1 as his scenes 
are more varied1 than those of ,defoe4  
,his coarseness is everywhere redeemed  
by a genuine feeling for the            
contumelious buffets to which weakness  
is exposed4 ,he has the practical       
insight of ,dickens and ,thackeray1     
without their infusion of sentiment4 ,he

 does not moralise over the contrast    
between the rich man's law and the poor 
man's1 over the indifference of rural   
justice1 over the lying and adultery of 
fashionable life4 ,he simply makes us   
see the facts1 which are everywhere     
under our eyes1 but too close to us for 
discernment4 ,he shows society where its
 sores lie1 appealing from the judgment 
of the diseased class itself to that    
public intelligence which1 in spite of  
the cynic's sneer on the task of        
producing an honesty from the combined  
action of knaves1 has really power to   
over-ride private selfishness4 ,the same
 sermon has found many preachers since1 
the unconscious missionaries being      
perhaps the greatest4 ,scott was a ,tory
 of the purest water4 ,his mind was busy
 with the revival of a pseudo-feudalism3
 no thought of reforming abuses probably
 ever entered it4 ,yet his genial human 
insight made him a reformer against his 
will4 ,he who makes man better known to 
man takes the first steps toward healing

 the wounds which man inflicts on man4  
,the permanent value of ,scott's novels 
lies in his pictures of the ,scotch     
peasantry4 ,he popularised the work     
which the ,lake poets had begun1 of     
re-opening the primary springs of human 
passion4 ,love he had found in huts     
where poor men lie1 and he announced the
 discovery2 teaching the world of       
,english gentry what for a century and a
 half they had seemed to forget1 that   
the human soul1 in its strength no less 
than in its weakness1 is independent of 
the accessories of fortune4 ,he left no 
equals1 but the combined force of his   
successors has been constantly growing  
in practical effect4 ,they have probably
 done more than the journalists to      
produce that improvement in the         
organisation of modern life which leads 
to the notion that1 because social      
grievances are less obvious1 they have  
ceased to exist4 ,the novelist catches  
the cry of suffering before it has      
obtained the strength1 or general       

recognition1 which are pre-supposed when
 the newspaper becomes its mouthpiece4  
,the miseries of the marriage-market had
 been told by ,thackeray1 with almost   
wearisome iteration1 many years before  
they found utterance in the columns of  
the ,times4  ,,footnote3  #bb ,or in    
,green's text4     ,c4 ,a ,,creator ,,of
 ,,public ,,sentiment   #be4 ,it may    
indeed be truly said that1 after all1   
human selfishness is much the same as it
 ever was2 that luxury still drowns     
sympathy2 that riches and poverty have  
still their old estranging influence4   
,the novel1 as has been shown1 cannot   
give a new birth to the spirit1 or      
initiate the effort to transcend the    
separations of place and circumstance2  
but it is no small thing that it should 
remove the barriers of ignorance and    
antipathy which would otherwise render  
the effort unavailing4 ,it at least     
brings man nearer to his neighbor1 and  
enables each class to see itself as     
others see it4 ,and from the fusion of  

opinions and sympathies thus produced1 a
 general sentiment is elicited1 to which
 oppression of any kind1 whether of one 
class by another1 or of individuals by  
the tyranny of sectarian custom1 seldom 
appeals in vain4     ,d4 ,a ,,leveller  
,,of ,,intellects   #bf4 ,the novelist  
is a leveller also in another sense than
 that of which we have already spoken4  
,he helps to level intellects as well as
 situations4 ,he supplies a kind of     
literary food which the weakest natures 
can assimilate as well as the strongest1
 and by the consumption of which the    
former sort lose much of their weakness 
and the latter much of their strength4  
,while minds of the lower order acquire 
from novel-reading a cultivation which  
they previously lacked1 the higher seem 
proportionately to sink4 ,they lose that
 aspiring pride which arises from the   
sense of walking in intellect on the    
necks of a subject crowd2 they no longer
 feel the bracing influence of living   
solely among the highest forms of art2  

they become conformed insensibly1 to the
 general opinion which the new          
literature of the people creates4 ,a    
similar change is going on in every     
department of man's activity4 ,the      
history of thought in its artistic form 
is parallel to its history in its other 
manifestations4 ,the spirit descends1   
that it may rise again2 it penetrates   
more and more widely into matter1 that  
it may make the world more completely   
its own4 ,political life seems no longer
 attractive1 now that political ideas   
and power are disseminated among the    
mass1 and the reason is recognised as   
belonging not to a ruling caste merely1 
but to all4 ,a statesman in a political 
society resting on a substratum of      
slavery1 and admitting no limits to the 
province of government1 was a very      
different person from the modern servant
 of a nation of shopkeepers1 whose best 
work is to save the pockets of the poor4
 ,it would seem as if man lost his      
nobleness when he ceased to govern1 and 

as if the equal rule of all was         
equivalent to the rule of none4 ,yet we 
hold fast to the faith that the         
cultivation of the masses1 which has for
 the present superseded the development 
of the individual1 will in its maturity 
produce some higher type even of        
individual manhood than any which the   
old world has known4 ,we may rest on the
 same faith in tracing the history of   
literature4 ,in the novel we must admit 
that the creative faculty has taken a   
lower form than it held in the epic and 
the tragedy4 ,but since in this form it 
acts on more extensive material and     
reaches more men1 we may well believe   
that this temporary declension is       
preparatory to some higher development1 
when the poet shall idealise life       
without making abstraction of any of its
 elements1 and when the secret of       
existence1 which he now speaks to the   
inward ear of a few1 may be proclaimed  
on the house-tops to the common         
intelligence of mankind4     ,,appendix 

,a4 ,,an ,,appreciation ,,of ,,green',s 
,,essay   ,it is interesting to see how 
the leading ideas in his ,green's mind  
governed the treatment of an apparently 
alien material in his last piece of     
academic work1 the essay on novels1     
which gained the ,chancellor's prize in 
#ahfb4 ,the essay has also the          
additional interest of being almost the 
only record of his views on art and its 
relation to life4 ,the fundamental      
conception upon which it is based is one
 with which we have already met4 ,the   
world in its truth is a unity1 governed 
by a single law1 animated by an         
undivided life1 a whole in every part4  
,but to human apprehension it is        
fragmentary and mechanical1 a chaos of  
elements of which each is external to   
the other and all are external to our   
minds1 and in which chance tempered by  
familiarity seems to be the only law4   
,to exceptional men1 or at exceptional  
crises in life1 in the moments of       
intense insight or emotion which        

philosophy calls knowledge and religion 
faith1 the weight of custom falls away1 
the truth breaks through the veil1 and  
the most trivial object or accident     
comes to reflect in itself the whole    
system of nature or the whole providence
 of ,god4 ,at such moments man realises 
that in order to live he must die1 that 
in order to be free he must obey1 and   
that only by surrendering his fancied   
independence can he enter into the      
divine unity4 ,to this liberation of the
 self from its own bondage art          
contributes its share4 ,the poetic      
genius1 like the speculative and the    
religious1 penetrates the monotonous    
disorder of everyday life1 and lays bare
 the impassioned expression which is    
there for those who can read it4 ,the   
dramatist1 for instance1 with whom the  
novelist is here compared1 shows us some
 elemental force of humanity1 stripped  
of the accidents of time and place1     
working itself out in free conflict with
 other forces1 and finally breaking     

itself against the eternal fact that no 
man can gain the world without first    
losing himself4 ,it is this catastrophe 
which makes the real tragedy of life2 it
 is this which the tragic poet has the  
eye to see and the words to portray2 and
 in proportion as we can follow him in  
imagination1 we come away from the      
spectacle with our own hearts broken and
 purged1 but strengthened to face the   
fact and obey the law4 ,the novelist    
does with inferior means1 and for minds 
at a lower level1 what the dramatist may
 do for a mind at its highest4 ,he      
idealises enough to make us feel        
pleasure or pain1 not enough to make us 
forget ourselves4 ,he excites curiosity 
or suspense1 not awe or hope4 ,if the   
novel ends well1 it flatters our        
complacency with the feeling that the   
world as it is is not such a bad place  
after all2 if it ends badly1 it         
strengthens the indolent conviction that
 aimless misery is the law of the       
universe4 ,there are however two ways in

 which novels may be of real service and
 value4 ,if they cannot teach men how to
 live1 they may1 through the wide range 
of their subjects1 enable those who have
 already found a principle of life to   
give it a freer application than their  
limited circumstances would otherwise   
allow2 the fictitious experience may    
give expansion to the personal1 while   
the personal gives reality to the       
fictitious1 and thus may be mitigated   
that sacrifice of the individual to     
society which the modern division of    
labor tends to bring about4 ,and        
secondly1 by appealing to such various  
classes and capacities1 and exhibiting  
the identity of human nature under such 
various circumstances1 novels supply a  
vehicle through which the force of      
public opinion may work1 fusing         
differences1 breaking down prejudices1  
and checking the despotism of           
situations4 ,the essay concludes        
characteristically with the refusal to  
believe that democracy is necessarily   

unpoetic4 ,as we hold fast to the faith 
that the 'cultivation of the masses1'   
which has for the present superseded the
 development of the individual1 will in 
its maturity produce some higher type of
 individual manhood than any which the  
old world has known1 so1 though in the  
novel the creative faculty has taken a  
lower form than it held in the epic and 
the tragedy1 we may well believe that   
this temporary declension is preparatory
 to some higher development1 when the   
poet shall idealise life without making 
abstraction of any of its elements1 and 
when the secret of existence1 which he  
now speaks to the inward ear of a few1  
may be proclaimed on the housetops to   
the common intelligence of mankind4     
,readers of the essay who are also      
novel-readers will be inclined to say   
that the writer was not much in sympathy
 with his subject2 and he himself1 on   
getting the prize1 remarks that it is   
curious that ,i should have been        
successful in an essay on novels1 about 

which ,i know and care little1 and      
should have failed in both my efforts in
 theology1 for which ,i care            
considerably4 ,at the same time it is   
probably true1 as he once said1 that he 
had read more novels than his friends   
gave him credit for1 and it is certainly
 true that what his reading lacked in   
extent it made up in intensity4 ,as     
might be supposed1 his taste in fiction 
was for forcible delineation and robust 
humor4 ,the flavor of strong1 healthy   
individuality was what attracted him2   
for rarities1 niceties1 and             
abnormalities of mental organisation he 
cared nothing4 ,he liked things which he
 could take hold of with his mind1 not  
things which merely gave him sensations1
 pleasant or painful4 ,both in his      
deepest and his lightest moods he was   
absolutely simple and above board1 and  
this simplicity made him keenly alive to
 the proximity of the sublime to the    
ridiculous or the exquisite to the      
grotesque4 ,though he had little of the 

animal in him1 and was never troubled by
 his appetites1 he was quite free from  
prudery4 ,if obscenity moved him at all1
 it was to frank laughter or to grim    
contempt2 he never dwelt upon it1 either
 in the way of enjoyment or loathing4   
,for rules of ascetic discipline1 says a
 friend1 he had no need4 ,the view of   
life suggested by so much of the best   
,french literature1 that thinking men   
are generally in a practical dilemma    
between the extremes of sensual excess  
and of spiritual exaltation1 did not    
commend itself to him in the least4 ,the
 only forms of art to which he was      
keenly susceptible were those of oratory
 and poetry4 ,he had no ear for music1  
though he seemed to get a certain       
exaltation from listening to it4 ,in    
regard to painting and sculpture he     
always professed himself incompetent1   
but he was not without decided tastes4  
,on his first visit to the ,continent he
 was more attracted by ,rembrandt1      
,holbein1 and ,drer than by the         

,italians2 these men1 he said1 grasped  
the idea of ,christianity4 ,of ,durer's 
four saints at ,munich he writes1 ,i    
could contemplate them with interest for
 hours2 he has contrived to give ,st4   
,john an almost perfect expression of   
'divine philosophy'4 ,in later years    
when he went to ,italy he spent a good  
deal of time in looking at early        
,italian pictures1 and admitted that    
they would soon have got a great hold   
upon him4 ,but on the whole his attitude
 to the arts 7excluding those of        
language7 was one of deferential        
ignorance4 ,he had not himself any      
artistic gifts2 he did not even write   
verses4 ,yet to his friends1 as one of  
them says1 he never represented the     
prose of existence4 ,with all his       
gravity1 with all his firm grip on fact 
and material interests1 he had the      
enthusiastic movement of the world's    
poetry in him4--,from the ,memoir by ,r4
 ,l4 ,nettleship1 ,green's ',works1'    
,vol4 #c1 pp4 xxx-xxxiii4     ,b4       

,,hegel ,,on ,,the ,,novel   ,among the 
mongrel forms of epic should be included
 the half descriptive1 half lyric poems 
which were popular among the ,english1  
dealing chiefly with nature1 the seasons
 of the year1 etc4 ,there belong also to
 this division numerous didactic poems  
in which a prosaic content is dressed up
 in poetic form1 such as compendiums of 
physics1 astronomy1 and medicine1 and   
treatises on chess1 fishing1 hunting1   
and the conduct of life4 ,poems of this 
sort were most artfully elaborated by   
the later ,greeks1 by the ,romans1 and1 
in modern times1 especially by the      
,french4 ,despite their general epic    
tone1 they lend themselves readily to   
lyric treatment4  ,more poetical1 but   
still without the characteristics       
necessary for definite classification1  
are romances and ballads4 ,being epic in
 content but lyric in treatment1 these  
products of the ,middle ,ages and of    
modern times may be assigned to either  
class indifferently4  ,the case of the  

novel1 the modern popular epic1 is very 
different4 ,here we find the same wealth
 and variety of interests1              
circumstances1 characters1 and human    
relationships1 the same                 
world-background1 and the same handling 
of events1 that characterize the true   
epic4 ,but there is lacking to it the   
primitive poetic state of the world1 in 
which the true epic took its rise4 ,the 
novel1 in the modern acceptation of the 
term1 presupposes a prosaically ordered 
reality4 ,but working from the basis of 
this reality1 and moving within its own 
circle1 the novel1 both as regards      
picturesqueness of incident and as      
regards characters and their fate1      
retrieves for poetry 7so far as the     
above presupposition permits7 her lost  
prerogatives4#bc  ,thus it happens that 
the struggle between the poetry of the  
heart and the opposing prose of outward 
circumstances is for the novel one of   
the commonest and most suitable         
conflicts4 ,this struggle may end       

comically1 or tragically1 or in a       
reconciliation of the opposing forces4  
,in the last case the characters who at 
first oppose the ordinary world-order   
may1 by learning to recognize the true  
and abiding elements in it1 become      
reconciled to the existing              
circumstances1 and take an active part  
in them2 or1 on the other hand1 they may
 strip off the prosaic hull from deed   
and accomplishment1 and thus put in the 
place of the original prose a reality   
which is on intimate and friendly terms 
with beauty and art4  ,as far as the    
range of representation is concerned1   
the true novel1 like the epic1 requires 
a complete world and a complete view of 
life1 the many-sided materials and      
relationships of which exhibit          
themselves in the particular action that
 is the nucleus of the whole4 ,as to    
details of conception and development1  
however1 the author must be allowed     
great liberty1 for it is difficult to   
bring the prose of real life into the   

representation without sticking fast in 
the prosaic and commonplace4--,hegel1   
',aesthetik4' #c4 ,thl41 ,kap4 ,,iii4   
,abt4 #c41 ,s4 #cid-cif4  ,,footnote3   
#bc ,in simpler terms3 ,the novel1 being
 a form of epic1 should have all the    
characteristics of poetry4 ,but this is 
impossible because it is compelled to   
work in the humble field of prose4      
,nevertheless1 by a skilful use of      
description1 narration1 and dramatic    
situation1 it causes a poetic oasis to  
spring up in the desert of prose1 and so
 wins back some of its poetical rights4