hilosophy
will tell you that the world's thought was prevailingly deductive
till the days of Francis Bacon. Bacon was the first philosopher to
insist that induction, rather than deduction, was the most effective
method of searching for the truth. Science, which is based upon
induction, was in its infancy when Bacon taught; since then it has
matured, largely because he and his successors in philosophy
pointed out the only method through which it might develop.
Deduction has of course survived as a method of conducting thought;
but it has lost the undisputed empery which it held over the ancient
and the medieval mind. Now, if we turn to the history of fiction, we
shall notice the significant fact that realism is a strictly modern
product. All fiction was romantic till the days of Bacon. Realism is
contemporaneous with modern science and the other applications of
inductive thought. Romance survives, of course; but it has lost the
undisputed empery of fiction which it held in ancient and in
medieval times. If Bacon had written fiction, he would have been a
realist--the first realist in the history of literature; and this is
the only reply that is necessary to those who still maintain (if
any do) that he was capable of writing the romantic plays of
Shakespeare.

If it be granted now that the realist, by induction, leads his reader
up from a consideration of imagined facts to a comprehension of truth,
and that the romantic, by deduction, leads his reader down from an
apprehension of truth to a consideration of imagined facts, we may
next examine certain advantages and disadvantages of each method in
comparison with the other.

=Advantages of Realism.=--In the first place, we notice, that, while
the imagined facts of the romantic are selected merely to illustrate
the truth he wishes to convey, the imagined facts of the realist are
selected not only to illustrate, but also to support, the truth that
lies inherent in them. The realist, then, has this advantage, over the
romantic in his method of expressing truth: he has the opportunity to
prove his case by presenting the evidence on which his truth is based.
It is therefore less difficult for him to conquer credence from a
skeptical and wary reader: and we must remember always that even
though a story tells the truth, it is still a failure unless it gets
that truth believed. The romantic necessarily demands a deeper faith
in his wisdom than the realist need ask for; and he ca