PROSE LITERATURE.
The Essay is the simplest form of prose dis course, and the form most closely related to the °literature of knowledge?' In the least devel cpcd type it may be looked upon as a collection of gnomic sayings or aphorisms and be called Gnomic or Aphoristic. In the Old Testament 'Book of Proverbs' one may see, in certain chapters, the aphoristic essay growing out of the mere collection of aphorisms. For English literature the chief example of this type is the Essays of Francis Bacon (q.v.). If, instead of expressing general ideas, the writer sets down his individual experiences and feelings, frankly representing his personality rather than ab stract truth, the essay becomes personal or fa miliar; of this type the chief example in Eng lish literature is the 'Essays of Elia (q.v.), by Charles Lamb. A further development takes place when the essay represents critical think ing, elaborated on themes literary, political, historical, etc.; often this type takes its rise in a book review. It may be called the critical or expository; the chief example in English lit erature is the Essays of Lord Macaulay (q.v.). See further under ESSAY.
Prose Fiction, or imaginative narrative, is closely related to poetry, because so freely cre ative in character; and at certain periods, not ably in the Middle Ages, the distinction be tween prose and verse romance is almost negli gible. In general, fiction is most distinctively classified under the two heads of Romance and Novel. The romance deals characteristically
with the unfamiliar or wonderful— with mat ters distant in time or space, with heroic or su pernatural adventure, and with romantically moving backgrounds and emotional situations; the novel deals characteristically with the famil iar, with the sense of reality and the represen tation of the problems of contemporary life. The romance, therefore, tends to be more po etic and to be less concerned with ethics and social organization; the novel tends to be more critical—often satiric, and frequently, though not invariably, concerns itself with sociological and kindred themes. A third type, the tale or (as it is now commonly called) the short story, may partake of the character of either romance or novel; the short stories of Haw thorne and Poe exemplify the former tend ency, those of recent American writers like Sarah Orne Jewett and °O. Henry," the latter. Poe distinguished, in a well-known passage, the true short story (which some prefer to write °Short-Story” as one which can be read at a single sitting, and in which every word contributes to a single preconceived effect. Be tween this and the novel stands the novelette, in which the method of the novel is followed in abbreviated form. See further under