1897.J on Bomance. 439 



due either to the choice of the aspect, or to its treatment, or to a 

 combination of these two. Now every novel which (if I may use the 

 phrase) knows its own mind, may be analysed into, first, the theme, 

 and secondly, the things which exist for the sake of the theme — the 

 auxiliaries ; that is to say, into the thing which it was the writer's 

 end and object to exhibit, and the various means and devices by which 

 he endeavours to make the exhibition of it as clear, as complete, and 

 as striking as possible. For the essential character of the book we 

 must look not at the auxiliaries but at the theme ; indeed it is not 

 a rare case that much of the auxiliaries should be in violent contrast 

 with the theme, seeking that means of heightening the theme's effect. 

 We should go very wrong, then, if we judged the character of the book 

 from them : it is always the theme which decides that. To put it 

 briefly, the auxiliaries subserve the theme, the theme classes the book. 



Again, the theme is not concerned with incidents as such. I 

 need not approach the borders of metaphysics and ask whether there 

 is any such thing as an incident as such, or could be ; I am happily 

 at liberty to waive that question, and to content myself with observing 

 that at any rate incidents as such — incidents not in relation to a mind 

 perceptive of them, I mean — are not the subject of novels. The theme 

 deals with people passing through incidents, and shows how they are 

 affected thereby : their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and volitions. 

 The incidents are means, not ends, and, to use the common metaphor, 

 just as truly a background to the picture as any particular locality or 

 any historical period which the writer may select for the staging of his 

 story. The truth of this, if not self-evident, yet becomes immediately 

 apparent when we observe that we can go a very long way towards 

 changing incidents, or even towards dispensing entirely with external 

 incidents, without affecting the identity of the theme ; but we can 

 take hardly a single step in the direction of changing the character 

 of the people with whom the theme is concerned : it becomes plain 

 at once that a pursuit of that path will end by depriving us altogether 

 of what we set out to tell, and leaving us either with no story at all 

 or with a very different one. Novels, then, are not about things or 

 incidents, but about people. It may be objected that they are also, 

 in some cases, about non-human animals- Yes, but only when such 

 animals are treated as people — that is to say, with an artificiality 

 which the writer's talent makes us accept in spite of a more or less 

 obstinate sense of ultimate falsity. 



It follows that the quality which is the subject of my inquiry, 

 since it is to be found in the theme, must be found in the people and 

 not in the incidents. Here common ways of speaking and thinking 

 seem to be to some extent against us. When the ordinary man — 

 when anybody who is not at the moment trying or caring to think 

 exactly — speaks of a romance, no doubt he most often has external in- 

 cidents in his mind ; he thinks of fighting perhaps, 



" the lance points slantingly — 

 Athwart the morning air." 



2 G 2 



