1897.] on Romance. 449 



emotions and most attract the reader to the engrossed study of them. 

 It is almost impossible to say, and certainly not very useful to spend 

 time in inquiring, whether the first task or the second is the more 

 difficult : the successful accomplishment of both is necessary to the 

 writing of a good romance, and the product which results from 

 bringing the emotions into contact with the incidents is the plot. 

 This product may or may not be in complete existence when the 

 writer begins the story ; it must be complete by the time he ends it. 

 I do not mean that every incident which may be related in a novel is 

 part of the plot, or every emotion which may be described either. 

 We may revert to the formal division of theme and auxiliaries, and 

 although it may not be practicable to draw a very definite line between 

 what belongs to the plot and what does not in all case^, we may say 

 that the plot lies in the theme and such of the auxiliaries as afford the 

 most immediate and essential vehicle for the expression of the theme. 

 Beyond these limits there may lie both many emotions and many in- 

 cidents, all of which should no doubt, if we are to follow a rigid rule, 

 have their particular service to perform in relation to the plot, but as 

 to which in the practice of critics considerable latitude is allowed, 

 2:)rovided that they are in themselves of an entertaining description, 

 or contain true and life-like sketches of human nature. No man is 

 denied a few digressions if he will make good use of the indulgence. 



The second point is this. I may seem to have drifted into a 

 eulogy where I meant only to render justice, and to have claimed for 

 romantic novels a pre-eminence over other kinds. To make any such 

 pretentions on their behalf is not my purpose, and would by no means 

 represent my own opinion. The power and province of romance are 

 limited ; it cannot annex and does not seek to encroach upon sister- 

 kingdoms. Concerned itself with strong and simple emotions, it is 

 addressed to emotions of a similar nature ; it is primarily an appeal 

 to feeling, and to feeling of a direct, normal and straightforward 

 description. It is not armed with the keenest weapons of analysis; 

 it is not skilled to trace minute variations or to catch flitting shades ; 

 it is not at home with struggles and stirrings that find no outlet in 

 action, are invisible to the world, and barely conscious in the 

 heart which is their home ; it prefers an environment where a 

 man's individuality can have play, and has no pleasure in the 

 sombre picture of a tyranny of circumstances that crushes the actor 

 •into a mere sufferer; its purpose is not to arraign the equity of 

 institutions or to read the riddles of life. These subtle investiga- 

 tions, so attractive in their difficulty, so delicate and 25atient in 

 their methods, with their results so fascinating to the alert intellect 

 and the curious mind, it must leave to writings of another temper. 

 Nor, again, is it the way of romance to bid you stand by, an amused 

 spectator, while it exhibits to you scenes from the world's comedy, 

 and bids you laugh at follies of which you are not guilty, or at passions 

 from which you smilingly thank heaven you are free — or wonder you 

 are not ; it is not disinterested enough for that, and must have you 



