To quote one more instance ; during the first half of the last century the great object of attention was " the town," by which was meant the profligate life spent by men of fashion. A glance at the poetry of that age is enough to show that Nature had small charms for the reading public, and that fashion was then everything. If we turn to the novelists, to Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, and then to their descriptions, can anything be more obvious, than that the external dress of the novel—that by which it is distinguished from other narrative works of imaginrstion,—depends entirely on the age in which it is written, and is in effect a tolerably faithful but somewhat exaggerated reflection of the favourite ideal objects and pursuits of the reading classes at the time.
But there is another salient feature in the novel, which it possesses in common with the poetical romance, and which distinguishes it most completely from all classical fictions. We refer to the important part played in almost all novels by that kind of love which goes by the name of romantic.
It cannot be doubted that the influence of Christianity and of the old German spirit upon the nations of modern Europe has contributed to alter the treatment and condition of women, not only in degree but in kind. To the eye of a Roman observer, one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the German nation was the veneration paid to women, and this veneration, transmitted through generations, affected in no unfavourable degree by Christian precepts, although changing in appearance with the change of ages, still exists in that gallantry of which the Romans and Greeks seem to have been wholly ignorant, and which in the romantic novel, as being a picture of human life, playa a most important part. But it is still to be remembered that it is not the passion of love as a classical author would have described it, but the passion as developed in those nations among whom romantic tales have been principally current, which thus predominates in the romantic noveL The popularity of novels is one of the most curious features of our literature ; and it is to be observed that it is attended with an almost entire discouragement of dramatic composition, and with a marked preference on the part of those who apparently patronise the drama, for scenic effect, In place of accurate dramatic delineation of character. There is scarcely one tragedy worth mention of a date posterior to the time of Fielding. ' Philip van Artevelde, the offspring of our day, and, although far below it in merit, Talfounrs ' Ion,' are worth notice, as well for other reasons as because they have been accompanied by an effort, in act, to redeem the stage from serving 119 the mere vehicle of dramatised novels. But we cannot give to ' Philip van Arteveldo ' the
name of is drama ; indeed the author himself styles it a dramatic romance ; and its length and the character of many of its incidents bring it rather under the romance than the drama. We have drawn a distinction between the romance and the novel, the former being the more comprehensive word; but we must still bear in mind that a prose novel stands in the same relation to a later age that a poetical romance does to an earlier, for poetry constitute, the only possible literature of an age of reciters; and it is not until men begin to read for themselves that prose comes into being.
There is another feature about the novels of the present day which deserves especial notice, and that is the manifold forms which they assume. We have them as naval tales, military records, love stories, political memoirs, the diaries of clergymen, lawyers, and physicians, novels embodying theological disquisitions,.–suited in short to every class of readers, From this we see how much the demand influences the supply, even in that most incorporeal of all manufactures, book making. That the appetite la fed by the supply is also true, but not to an extent sufficient to justify us in supposing that the one depends entirely upon the other. The manifold character of modern romantic literature, as compared with that uniformity which distinguished the romances of the middle ages, when author after author exhausted his powers in adding to one bulky record of the fall of Troy, or the con quests of Alexander, is the last proof which we need bring to show that romances do really depend upon and go along with the prevailing tone of the age in which they appear.
It is not the province of this work to enlarge on the probable or actual effects of any course of reading, but it may be as well to point out that the injury supposed to be done to the mind by novel reading is not peculiar to any one kind of study. A constant devotion to any abstract speculation notoriously deadens the taste ; and too much cultivation of any one pursuit necessarily gives the corresponding part of the mind a growth disproportionate to that of the rest. The peculiar evil of novel-reading depends on the bad quality of the food devoured, which pampers our love for ideal griefs and joys, to the prejudice of all well-organised efforts to grapple with the realities of life.