Saisiaz, with realistic prose fiction, in the details of substance and form.

See the glossary, under "lyrical."

185. Journalism. The historical associations of journalism with the novel are quite intimate, and have continued for two centuries. From the Sir Roger de Coverley papers until the present time, the practise of publishing prose fictions in periodicals has been common. Not only The Spectator, but The Idler, The Rambler, and Goldsmith's semi-journalistic Citizen of the World, all contain much that is novelistic in subject; and make use of such novelistic forms as the imaginary character, the "feigned letter," dialogue, allegorical story, etc. The book-reviewer was early recognized as an important power in modifying the popularity of fiction in general, and of individual works. Much of the best criticism of fiction, as well as most of the worst, has appeared in periodicals. A considerable number of novelists have been journalists, and have carried the spirit and method of journalism into the field of their art.

In spirit, journalism resembles the realistic novel in its modernness, its social quality, its democracy, and its secularity. A critic who vigorously attacked or defended the one form of literature would logically take much the same attitude toward the other. Both have been severely criticized by the academic, classical mind, on æsthetic grounds; and by the puritanic mind, on ethical grounds.

Thoreau's advice to 'read not the times but the eternities,' would forbid one to loiter with the vast majority of popular novels. These words of his, with reference to the newspaper, are even more directly anti-novelistic : "If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old

women over their tea."1 Compare Carlyle's interpretation of journalism as serving one function of the church in modern society: "A preaching friar settles himself in every village, and builds a pulpit, which he calls Newspaper," 2 etc.

186. Other Types of Literature. Among other literary types with which a novel may be compared, with some special fitness, are the "character," the letter, and the

sermon.

The treatment of individual life in the character is too typical, too isolated, to resemble closely that of the novel; but character-writing made its contribution to the historical development of the novel, and might still serve as a kind of preliminary exercise for the novelist. A series of characters, such as those of Earle's Microcosmography, may make considerable approach to the novel, by way of studied contrasts, sketches of social groups, and description of place settings.

The historical relation of letter-writing to the rise of the novel in the eighteenth century is clear; and there are many similar technical points in the two forms. In a series of real letters, one may note, in much the same manner as in history or biography, the proportion of emphasis upon incident and character, upon the individual and his social environment, upon exhibition and interpretation, etc.

Outline the transformation of a dialogic and narrative novel into epistolary structure. - Compare the amount of novelistic material in some of the famous series of real letters, such as the correspondence of Goethe and Schiller, of Carlyle and Emerson, of Mrs. Montagu, Horace Walpole, or Chesterfield.

The purpose novel sometimes approaches very near to the nature of a sermon. It is often said that journalism

1 Walden; What I lived for.

2 Sartor Resartus; Organic Filaments.

and fiction have become substitutes for the sermon in modern society. Compare the statement of Carlyle in the preceding section. The number of recent novels with titles based on a biblical text may be worthy of notice.

A sermonistic quality might be expected in the novels of Sterne, Kingsley, and Newman. For one thing, a thinker accustomed to address a living audience might be presumed to have an unusually clear consciousness of his reading public, when he turns to literature as a means of communication.

CHAPTER XIII

COMPARATIVE ÆSTHETICS

187. Relation of the Separate Arts. When art in general is examined in comparison with science, or life, or nature, the differences between the separate arts may appear of little moment. On the other hand, when any single art is studied intensively for a long period, its individual peculiarities may at times appear more important than its family resemblance to the other arts. The arts differ more in body, in form, than in spirit. It is clear that they have very diverse modes of appeal to the senses; but the intellectual and moral messages they bring often have a remarkable unity. The technical student of any art is likely to emphasize its peculiarities of material and process of execution, with too little attention to its more general artistic values. On the contrary, some critics, whose interest is mainly historical or ethical, may almost lose sight of those physical characteristics which distinguish each art from its fellows.

Among the arts there are small sub-groups with special bonds of technical, theoretical, or historical union. Note, for example, the intimate relations of music and the drama, of architecture and sculpture. In some respects, the novel and the drama may be viewed as composing such a group.

As a subject for poetic treatment, the relation of the arts is a common theme in Browning. Among other references one may recall the ideas of Jules, in Pippa Passes, and of Aprile, in Paracelsus; and the career of Sordello, and of Cleon. The same conception at work in

the practise and theory of a real artist, is familiar in Browning's famous contemporary, Wagner.

188. Classification of the Arts.

The following simple

More

examples are given merely by way of illustration. elaborate classifications can readily be found in text-books of æsthetics.

I. I. Presentative arts:-architecture; music; land. scape gardening.

2. Representative arts:

drama; poetry.

II. 1. Plastic arts: architecture; sculpture; painting. 2. Tonic arts:- music; song ; poetry.

3. Mimical arts: - dance; meloplastik; drama. III. 1. Arts of sound: - poetry; music; dancing.

2. Arts of sight:- sculpture; painting; architecture.

Such classifications give one a general view of the aesthetic relations of the novel; which is, of course, included under poetry.

189. Method of Study. The analysis of the novel in the preceding pages, in its larger outlines, may be applied to any work of art. The topics of such analysis may be summarized thus: external material; external structure; internal structure; subject-matter; style; the process of composition; the shaping forces; the effects produced. The novel could be compared, in all these points, seriatim, with each of the other kinds of art. If one wishes to lay the emphasis more strongly upon the types of art, as separate wholes of interest, it may be best to follow other

1 Zeising: Esthetische Forschungen.

2 Véron: Esthetics. The somewhat curious classification of dancing is explained on p. 29.