12 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 
THE POSSIBILITIES OF FICTION. 
Read before the Hamilton Association, October 27th, 1892. 
BY W. SANFORD EVANS. 
I have chosen “‘ The Possibilities of Fiction” as the title of the 
paper I have prepared for this evening. My paper consists of a few 
thoughts on some of the principles underlying fiction. I have not 
attempted the criticism of particular works, but have attempted 
rather to present certain general aspects which it seems to me must 
be understood and decided upon before there can be such a thing 
as intelligent criticism or appreciation. The study of these general 
principles and general aspects will make clear to us what is greatest 
and most beneficial in novel-writing, or, in other words, will make 
clear the possibilities of fiction: hence my title. 
The world to-day has no universally accepted standard by their 
conformity with which we can finally adjudge the relative greatness 
of authors or of individual works. There is no reason from the 
nature of the case why such a standard could not be formed, but it 
is very evident that this standard must be based on the possibilities 
of fiction, and that these possibilities can be discovered only 
after careful and scientific investigation of the principles involved. 
My desire for personal satisfaction on this subject has led me to 
devote some study to it. To present even the few results I have 
already attained, in the short time at my disposal, is not possible, 
. and so my treatment must necessarily be incomplete. My only ob- 
ject will be to offer some general thoughts in the hope that they 
may prove suggestive. 
There came a time in the history of my reading of works of 
fiction when I paused to ask myself why I read them. I hada ~ 
preference for certain works and for certain authors, and I paused 
to ask myself the reason for my preference. There were periods, 
even of serious enquiry, when, of all the sources I knew, I turned to 
fiction to seek something to satisfy the undefined questioning that 
agitated me; and I paused to ask myself if it might not be, if it 
were not true, that in the novel there can be expressed better than 
