THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 185 



tions. Hence the vigorous portrayal of such 

 a life is full of educative force. Things are 

 made vividly real, emphasis is put on begin- 

 nings and possibilties, the power of circum- 

 stances is intensified, and the open doors of op- 

 portunity are more than hinted at. In these 

 stories we insensibly take the place of hero or 

 heroine or subordinate character, and think 

 and feel and act with them. We suffer and re- 

 joice together, and together struggle against 

 misfortunes and accept the inevitable or clamb- 

 er to the heights in spite of adversities and exult 

 in conquests achieved and victories won. 

 The characters are so real we enter into them, 

 and for a while we are out of our world into 

 theirs, and are living their lives and fighting 

 their battles and bearing their burdens and in 

 every way feeling their joys and sorrows. By 

 our sympathy with these characters we see 

 things in a truer light and are taught to turn 

 from the false and unreal and immoral, and 

 growingly to admire the manly and womanly 

 whether rich or poor, and so the spirit of kind- 

 ness grows apace, a kindness that can "feel 

 another's woe." 



Story telling is indigenous to the race, it is 

 the marked character of genius, existing and 

 potential in the musician, the painter and the 



