18 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 
possibilities than the drama. This paper is merely afew thoughts 
upon the novel that is most worthy of such a reading. 
The third question is :— 
3rd. What place does the novel fill? Philosophy finds its 
proper expression in a strictly accurate treatise ; logic, in the 
syllogism ; geometry, in hypothesis and demonstration ; dreams and 
flights of fancy, in poetry. Is there anything that finds its most 
effective presentation in the novel? Is there anything left undone 
until the novel does it? Is there any work the novel can do better 
than any other kind of literature ?_ I think there is. 
(1). It is the best means of extending our experience and know- 
ledge of life beyond the bounds of our personal lot. No matter how 
far we may have advanced in self-knowledge, and how skilful we may 
be in studying the life around us, it must happen, from the neces- 
sarily narrow range of an individual, that we will not come in con- 
tact with a great many important facts in life, or that we will meet 
with isolated facts which we cannot rightly understand because we 
cannot compare them with others of the same kind. A novel can 
best supply what we lack because it is the best form in which others 
can put their experience and observation of life. 
As growing out of this use of it: 
(2). It is a more effective way than any other of extending our 
sympathy with our fellowmen. ‘The reason for the lack of sym- 
pathy that is seen between class and class, between rich and poor, 
between employer and employed, for example, is found in the fact 
that we do see people as we see ourselves. We often hear quoted : 
‘‘Oh ! Wad some power the giftie gie us 
To see oursels as ithers see us.” 
IT would like to transpose this and make of it a prayer that 
would give utterance to an even more deeply-seated need : 
“Oh! Wad some power the giftie gie us 
To see each other as we see ourselves, 
’Twould from mony an evil free us, 
And foolish notion.” 
If the employed could recognize that his master’s life is just as 
full as his own of anxious care, and thought, and hope, and dis- 
appointment ; if the employer could recognize that his servant has 
essentially his feelings and needs, there could not but grow up an 
ever-strengthening bond of sympathy between them. The work of 
creating this sympathy cannot be done by quoting statistics or by 
