ir
clarity of vision into the inner truth of things that are. To such
degenerate romance, Professor Brander Matthews has applied the term
"romanticism"; and though his use of the term itself may be considered
a little too special for general currency, no exception can be taken
to the distinction which he enforces in the following paragraph: "The
Romantic calls up the idea of something primary, spontaneous, and
perhaps medieval, while the Romanticist suggests something secondary,
conscious, and of recent fabrication. Romance, like many another thing
of beauty, is very rare; but Romanticism is common enough nowadays.
The truly Romantic is difficult to achieve; but the artificial
Romanticist is so easy as to be scarce worth the attempting. The
Romantic is ever young, ever fresh, ever delightful; but the
Romanticist is stale and second-hand and unendurable. Romance is never
in danger of growing old, for it deals with the spirit of man without
regard to times and seasons; but Romanticism gets out of date with
every twist of the kaleidoscope of literary fashion. The Romantic is
eternally and essentially true, but the Romanticist is inevitably
false. Romance is sterling, but Romanticism is shoddy."

But the Scylla and the Charybdis of fiction-writing may both be
avoided. The realists gain nothing by hooting at the abuses of
romance; and the romantics gain as little by yawning over realism at
its worst. "The conditions"--to use a phase of Emerson's--"are hard
but equal": and at their best, the realist, working inductively, and
the romantic, working deductively, are equally able to present the
truth of fiction.

[2] The theory which follows in this chapter was first announced by
the present writer in _The Dial_ for November 16, 1904.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Define the difference between realism and romance.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the realistic method?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the romantic method?

4. Which method is more natural to your own mind?

5. Upon what evidence have you based your answer to the foregoing
question?

SUGGESTED READING

BLISS PERRY: "A Study of Prose Fiction"--Chapter IX, on "Realism," and
Chapter X, on "Romanticism."

F. MARION CRAWFORD: "The Novel: What It Is."

HENRY JAMES: "The Art of Fiction."

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: Preface to "The House of the Seven Gables."

SIR WALTER BESANT: "The Art of Fiction."

GUY DE MAUPASSANT: Pr