126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



manticist. The one has reference to the spirit, and the 

 other the style, of writing. The romance movement cul- 

 minated in Scott. He was the typical romancer. His nov- 

 els are the highest type of prose fiction. Not only do we 

 find the plot and adventure, but keen observation of life 

 and knowledge of men. " Ivanhoe" is pronounced by many 

 the best novel ever written. In this romantic school we find 

 the poets Gray, Collins, Wordsworth and Cowper. Milton 

 still held to the classical style, being the most scholarly of 

 the English poets. His books are of the highest moral 

 character. 



The idealist delights in an imaginary standard of excel- 

 lence, such as exists only in the imagination. The ideal 

 is the gathering of all good into one character, excluding 

 every defect. Both the idealist and romancer indulge in all 

 kinds of picturesque fancies, not quite to the degree of 

 being sensational, although some come near it. 



The realist deals with commonplace affairs that he actu- 

 ally sees. He imagines nothing, and deals with the practi- 

 cal. William Dean Howells is a typical realist. His lack 

 of noble ideals has been adversely noted by foreign critics. 

 Lady Verney, in a criticism in a foreign magazine, says, 

 "Is it fair to judge of American women by the pictures 

 drawn in American story books of to-day? The first and 

 most striking trait in these books is the extraordinary 

 respect for class distinction, position and money. Next 

 comes the value set upon dress. The importance of the 

 gown question as portrayed in American books can hardly 

 be imagined by the European mind." Consequently the 

 lady concludes from these specimens that the American 

 young lady must be a supremely uninteresting human 

 being. This conclusion is not pleasant for us to contem- 

 plate ; but our American mind is relieved, however, when 

 we remember that Bishop Brooks said that "It is not what 

 we have or what we know that decides for us our right 

 to the title of true womanhood, but what we are ; and what 

 we are is the result of multiplying our characters by our 

 circumstances." If Howells has been faithful in obtaining 

 a truo product of such a multiplication, then we must ac- 



