o the man who is
both curious and sympathetic. The kingdom of adventure is within
us. Just as we create beauty in an object when we look upon it
beautifully, so we create adventure all around us when we walk the
world inwardly aglow with love of life. Things of interest happened
to Robert Louis Stevenson every day of his existence, because he
incorporated the faculty of being interested in things. In one of
his most glowing essays, "The Lantern-Bearers," he declared that
never an hour of his life had gone dully yet; if it had been spent
waiting at a railway junction, he had had some scattering thoughts,
he had counted some grains of memory, compared to which the whole
of many romances seemed but dross. The author who aspires to write
fiction should cultivate the faculty of caring for all things that
come to pass; he should train himself rigorously never to be bored;
he should look upon all life that swims into his ken with curious
and sympathetic eyes, remembering always that sympathy is a deeper
faculty than curiosity: and because of the profound joy of his
interest in life, he should endeavor humbly to earn that heritage of
interest by developing a thorough understanding of its source. In
this way, perhaps, he may grow aware of certain truths of life
which are materials for fiction. If so, he will have accomplished the
better half of his work: he will have found something to say.

[1] Macbeth: Act V; Scene 3.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is the logical relation (1) between fact and truth, (2)
between fact and fiction, and (3) between truth and fiction?

2. Define the spheres of the respective contributions of art,
philosophy, and science to the search for truth.

3. In what way is a well-imagined work of fiction more true to life
than a newspaper report of actual occurrences?

4. Explain the logical basis for distinguishing between morality and
immorality in a work of art.

SUGGESTED READING

FRANK NORRIS:--"A Problem in Fiction," in "The Responsibilities of the
Novelist."

CLAYTON HAMILTON:--"On Telling the Truth," in "The Art World" for
September, 1917.

CHAPTER II

REALISM AND ROMANCE

Two Methods of Exhibiting the Truth--Every Mind Either Realistic
or Romantic--Marion Crawford's Faulty Distinction--A Second
Unsatisfactory Distinction--A Third Unsatisfactory Distinction--Bliss
Perry's Negative Definition--The True Distinction One of Method, Not
of Material--Scientific Di