THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 13 
in any other way some of the truths about life that it is most im- 
portant for us to know. Since that time the novel, in its potentiali- 
ties at least, has been something more to me than a means of 
pastime. The more I have thought upon the subject the more I 
have been convinced that the novel holds possibilities of power and 
influence that make it no unworthy medium for the greatest thinkers 
of anage. The novel is great. The time has gone by when novels 
as a Class are to be forbidden, or even questionable, reading, and the 
time has come when they should be treated scientifically. The 
modern novel is not a toy; it is something instinct with modern 
research and modern thought, it is something that gains a readier 
and wider access to us men and women and exercises a more subtle 
and potent influence over us than any other kind of literature. Tell 
me what kind of novels a man reads and I will tell you how to 
sway him. 
I have thought that the most satisfactory form in which I could 
put what I have to say would be by proposing and answering some 
of the questions that naturally arise. These questions are : 
1st. Why are novels written ? 
2nd. Why are they read? © 
3rd. What place do they fill? 
4th. What is the greatest and most beneficial kind of novel ? 
To give full answers to these questions would require many 
lectures, and so, as I have already said, my treatment must neces- 
sarily be rather suggestive than complete. 
In the first place, then, Why do we write a novel? What is a 
novel from the author’s standpoint ? An answer to this is sometimes 
given by saying that “‘the object of the novel is to give pleasure;” 
that is, the novel is written to give pleasure to the reader, but surely 
such an answer is altogether superficial. No high art can be explain- 
ed by it. Can we think for a moment, without its cheapening our 
estimate of all great artistic work, that George Eliot, while elaborat- 
ing with such earnestness, sympathy and skill, the development of 
her characters and plot, was actuated solely by the desire of giving 
pleasure to others? Can we think it of Thackeray as he gives us the 
‘history and fortunes of Becky Sharp? Can we think it of Victor 
Hugo while under the creative inspiration that has given us the pas- 
sion and the pathos of Les Miserables? Can we think it of Shelley, 
