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CHAPTER VI.

OF NOVELS.

Q. What do you understand by the term Novel?

A. Novel, in its literal signification, means something new; but, as denoting a branch of literature, it is generally used as the name of all fictitious compositions in prose.

Q. What may this term, in its widest sense, be made to include?

A. Allegories, fables, and stories of all kinds, whether invented for the purpose of instruction or of amuse ment.

Q. Where had this species of composition its origin?

A. It is commonly thought to have originated among the people of Asia, and from them to have found its way into Greece and Rome, and thence into all the other nations of Europe, and into America.

Q. What are the best known of Eastern fictions?

A. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments; tnough all the writings of Eastern nations possess more or less of a fictitious character.

Q. Who introduced or revived the writing of novels in more modern times?

A. A set of strolling bards or story-tellers in France, called Troubadours, who went about proclaiming the deeds of imaginary heroes, in order to prompt to acts of chivalry.

Q. In what language did they compose?

A. In a sort of Roman-French, called Romanshe, from which is derived our word romance.

Q. What is the difference between a novel and a romance? A. A novel is a fictitious work, either founded upon the events of real life, or at least bearing some resemblance to them: while a romance is a work of a similar kind, having something wild and unnatural in it; and, if not purely imaginary, resting upon some extravagant tradition, and extending far beyond the limits of probability.

Q. When did novel-writing find its way into Great Britain? A. It was introduced into England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and since that time it has gradu

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ally extended, till now more novels issue from the press than works of almost any other description Q. Are novels an important branch of literature:

4. On this point there is great diversity of opinion, some extolling them as the best teachers of morals, and others condemning them as the corrupters of principle, and the contaminators of the mind.

Q. What is the character of a good novel?

A. A perfect freedom from every degree of immoral tendency, together with the power of deeply interesting the feelings of the reader.

Q. What is the consequence of too great a love of novels? A. It tends to distract the mind, and disqualify it for solid thinking, and the pursuit of useful knowledge. Q. Is there any peculiar style adapted to novels?

A. They admit of every variety of style, according to the nature of the incidents and characters described; but that must always be the best, which is most natural and animated.

Q. What peculiar quality of mind does the writing of good novels require?

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A. Great readiness of invention, with quickness in discerning, and power in describing, characters and

events.

Q. Can you mention some of the most distinguished writers of novels?

A. Le Sage and Voltaire among the French, Cervantes among the Spaniards, and Cooper among the Americans, with numerous novelists of great celebrity among the Italians and Germans.

Q. Have not the English distinguished themselves in this walk of literature?

A. More so than almost any other nation; and their most eminent writers of this class are, De Foe, Swift, Goldsmith, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Miss Porter, Miss Edgeworth, Sir Walter Scott, and Mrs. Ellis.

MORAL AND LITERARY INFLUENCE OF NOVELS.

Novels, in this day, are multiplying indefinitely. They are made the vehicles of every diversity of sentiment in philosophy, politics, and religion. Some of them display genius, some wit, and some ribaldry

Some are remarkable for the high moral tone that pervades them; some are negative in their character, and others are positively infidel and licentious. Some exhibit in their heroes the finest traits of humanity; others exalt the criminal to a hero, and endeavor to render vice attractive. It is probable that there are more pages of ephemeral novels published yearly, throughout the civilized world, than of all other literary productions united. They are not only published, but circulated and read; read, too, by that very class of persons who have no moral strength to resist their vicious influence. The German press, since 1814, has produced not less than five or six thousand new novels, for the most part bad in their influence, embra cing several millions of volumes. French novels have been nearly as numerous, and more demoralizing.

English novels have, in proportion to the issues of the press, been as numerous as in France or Germany.

In our own country, the facilities for cheap publication are manufacturing a flood of this species of literature, which is working out our destiny as a nation. Their influence can not be overlooked by the statesman, moralist, or philosopher. The unwary may imbibe the poison of vice or infidelity when looking only for amusement.

[For an ample discussion of this subject, consult the Amer. Bib. Repository, 1843; also an article in the Democratic Review, July, 1844; also North American Review, April, 1837, and for July, 1843

CHAPTER VII.

OF BLANK VERSE AND RHYME.

Q. What do you understand by Blank Verse?

A. That poetry which depends upon measure alone, without any correspondence of sound in the terminafing syllables of different lines.

Q. Can you give an example?

.

A. These, as they change, Almighty Father, these

Are but the varied God. The rolling year

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Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing spring
Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense and every heart is joy.

Q. What do you mean by Rhyme?

A. Poetry in which, besides the measured arrangement of the words, there is a recurrence of similar sounds at the end of certain lines.

Q. Can you exemplify this?

A. "Order is Heaven's first law: and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,

More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence,
That such are happier, shocks all common sense."

Q. What do you call two successive lines rhyming together? A. A couplet; while three, under similar circumstances, are called a triplet; as,

"Honor and shame from no condition rise;

Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
Four limpid fountains from the cliffs distill;
And every fountain pours a several rill,

Where blooms with vivid green were crown'd,
And glowing violets cast their odors round."

Q. What do you mean by imperfect rhymes?

A. Rhymes in which the sounds in certain syllables make merely an approach to each other, but are not perfectly alike; as,

"Shall only man be taken in the gross?

Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss."

Q. What do you mean by double rhymes?

A. Rhymes which occur both in the middle and at the end of the same verse, as well as in the final syllables of different verses; as,

"You, bustling and justling,
Forget each grief and pain;

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listless yet restless,

Find every prospect vain."

Q. What do you understand by the term stanza?

A. A certain arrangement of verses in which the rhymes do not take place in successive lines, but in such as are placed at some distance from each other;

as,

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"Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar!
Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime

Hath felt the influence of malignant star,

And waged with Fortune an eternal war;

Check'd by the scoff of Pride, by Envy's frown,

And Poverty's unconquerable bar,

In life's low vale remote hath pined alone,

Then dropp'd into the grave, unpitied and unknown!'

Q. What is the shortest stanza in our language?

A. That which consists of four lines or verses, sometimes with only the second and fourth lines forming a rhyme, and sometimes with the first and third also; as,

"O thou Great Being! what thou art

Surpasses me to know;

Yet sure I am, that known to thee
Are all thy works below."

"How smiling wakes the verdant year,

Array'd in velvet green;

How glad the circling fields appear,

That bound the blooming scene!"

Q. What may be conceived as the origin of rhyme ?

A. The pleasure which the ear feels in the recurrence of similar sounds; so that rhyme and alliteration, as well as poetry itself, have all a common origin. Q. Are rhyme and blank verse alike adapted to all sorts of subjects?

A. Rhyme is best fitted for light and familiar subjects; blank verse for those which are of a graver and more dignified character.

Q. Do blank verse and rhyme equally prevail in all languages? A. No; in Greek and Latin, rhyme is almost unknown; in French and Italian, there is hardly such a thing as blank verse; while in English, they are nearly alike prevalent. [See Montgomery on Poetry, p

109-113.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE STRUCTURE OF VERSE.

Q. On what does the Structure of Verse chiefly depend? A. On a certain arrangement of words, or syllables, called poetic feet.

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