1 86 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



architect, but the novelist is the oldest of them 

 all. The story element has ever a charm, it is 

 full of appeal and life, and is demanded as a 

 rest and refreshment. It matters little whether 

 literally true or not, whether of to-day or a 

 century ago, but it must be a good story and 

 carry the realities of life. There is only one 

 test for the novel, that it be first of all a well- 

 constructed story, that it deal sincerely with 

 life and character, and that its play of emotion 

 be true and sane and healthy. As to style, that 

 matters little, the living story leaping from the 

 sincere heart will create its own best style and 

 best suited to the characters — the style will be 

 the author's self. The author will not show life 

 as he sees it, but as he feels it; it is the difference 

 of eye and soul, the photographer and artist. 

 No important work was ever done unless there 

 was a great central idea mastering brain and 

 heart and filling the artist with spiritual dy- 

 namic. 



Fiction being both a transcript and criticism 

 of life, nothing that pertains to life is foreign 

 to it. It has the wide range of human expe- 

 rience and because the great novel is a work 

 of art and true to life, it is never likely to lose 

 its power over the human mind. But this de- 

 pends upon the artist. The story material is 



