74 Mr. Walter Besant [April 25, 



Poetry, Painting, and Music, it becomes a veliicle, not only for the 

 best thoughts of the writer, but also for those of the reader, so that a 

 novelist may write truthfully and faithfully, but simply, and yet be 

 understood in a far fuller and nobler sense than was present to his 

 own mind. This power is the very highest gift of the poet. He has 

 a vision and sees a thing clearly, yet perhaps afar off ; another who 

 reads him is enabled to get the same vision, to see the same thing, 

 yet closer and more distinctly. For a lower intellect thus to lead 

 and instruct a higher is surely a very great gift, and granted only to 

 the highest forms of Art. And this it is which Fiction of the best 

 kind does for its readers. It is, however, only another way of saying 

 that Truth in Fiction produces effects similar to those produced by 

 Truth in every other Art 



We come next to speak of the Laws which govern this Art. I 

 mean those general rules and principles which must necessarily be 

 acquired by every writer of Fiction before he can even hope for success. 

 Rules will not make a man a novelist, any more than a knowledge 

 of grammar makes a man know a language, or a knowledge of musical 

 science makes a man able to j)lay an instrument. Yet the Rules must 

 be learned. And, in speaking of them, one is compelled, so close is 

 the connection between the sister Arts, to use not only the same 

 terms, but also to adopt the same rules, as those laid down by 

 painters for their students. If these Laws appear self-evident, it is a 

 proof that the general principles of the Art are well understood. 

 Considering, however, the vast quantity of bad, inartistic work which 

 is every week laid before the public, one is inclined to think that a 

 statement of these principles may not be without usefulness. 



First, and before everything else, there is the Rule that everything 

 in Fiction which is invented and is not the result of personal 

 experience and observation is worthless. In some other Arts, the 

 design may follow any lines which the designer pleases : it may be 

 fanciful, unreal, or grotesque; but in modern Fiction, whose sole 

 end, aim, and purpose is to portray humanity and human character, 

 the design must be in accordance with the customs and general 

 practice of living men and women under any proposed set of circum- 

 stances and conditions. That is to say, the characters must be real, 

 and such as might be met with in actual life, or, at least, the natural 

 developments of such people as any of us might meet ; their actions 

 must be natural and consistent ; the conditions of place, of manners, 



and of thought must be drawn from personal observation 



Remember that most of the people who read novels and know 

 nothing about the art of writing them, recognise before any other 

 quality that of fidelity : the greatness of a novelist they measure 

 chiefly by the knowledge of the world displayed in his pages; 

 the highest praise they can bestow upon him is that he has drawn the 

 story to the life 



This being so, the first thing which has to be acquired is the art 

 of description. It seems easy to describe ; anyone, it seems, can set 



