THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 29 
and such a reading would not afford any relaxation which is one of 
the great uses of the novel. ‘They will contend that we get enough 
of this kind of thing in real life, and that when we pick up a novel 
we want something quite different from the life we are living. We 
want to read about hair-breadth escapes, or about lords and ladies 
with incompatible virtues and vices, and impossible fortunes. I 
cannot at all agree with this opinion. 
It is a very trite comparison, that of life to a voyage, but it is a 
very true one. We each have some harbor we would like to make. 
According to our temperaments and circumstances, our ambitions 
and desires adorn this island for which we set sail with all delights. 
Those who take this stand with regard to the novel, saying that we 
get enough of real lifein what we are forced to do, and that our 
chief object should be to get something to occupy our spare 
moments that would take us off into other realms, seem to me to 
advise that in entering on this voyage we merely weigh anchor and 
give sail. When the necessities of sustenance or the urgency of 
gales forces us to work and think, we are to do so, but when such 
necessities are not upon us we are to read of seas that we can never 
sail, of ships that we never made, of islands fancy-formed. We are 
to lie back and dream of journeys 
“* Over the seas 
With a crew that is neither rude nor rash, 
But a bevy of Eroses apple-cheek’d, 
In a shallop of crystal ivory-beak’d, 
With a satin sail of a ruby glow, 
To a sweet little Eden on earth that I know, 
A mountain islet pointed and peak’d ; 
Waves on a diamond shingle dash, 
Cataract brooks to the ocean run, 
Fairily-delicate palaces shine 
Mixt with myrtle and clad with vine, 
And over-stream’d and silvery-streak’d 
With many a rivulet high against the sun 
The facets of the glorious mountain flash 
Above the valleys of palm and pine.” 
Are there rocks ahead? Wedo not know. Are we sure that 
by driving before the wind or with the tide we shall ultimately 
reach our harbor? Are all the winds and all the tides certain to be 
favorable? Ought we not to change our course and beat up against 
the wind? We do not know. Is there really amid all the possibili- 
