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He must have a very despicable opinion of mankind indeed who can conceive them to be imposed on as often as they appear to be so. The truth is, they are in the same situation with the readers of romances; who, though they know the whole to be one entire fiction, nevertheless agree to be deceived; and, as these find amusement, so do the others find ease and convenience in this concurrence.
It is still more clearly the case when we go outside the sphere of science into its penumbra in literature and conversation. There is a mass of fiction and fashionable talk of which it may truly be said, that what we miss in it is not demons but the power to cast them out. It combines the occult with the obscene; the sensuality of materialism with the insanity of spiritualism.
It is true that the ideal Englishman was too much of a squire; but it is just to add that the ideal squire was a good squire. The best squire I know in fiction is Duke Theseus in "The Midsummer Night's Dream," who is kind to his people and proud of his dogs; and would be a perfect human being if he were not just a little bit prone to be kind to both of them in the same way.
The very charm of such a view will act as a stimulus to a wider experience and to a higher culture. "In our real life, as we come in daily contact with the world, we see and suffer enough. Therefore it cannot be harmful if fiction carries us into strange worlds of morality or into any mythical realm.
At half-past twelve she saw him come along, having on the previous day made herself acquainted with his personality. He was a dapper pert little man, neat in his dress, and suave in his manners. Not at all like the detective of fiction as known to Mrs. Parry. There was no solemnity or hint of mystery about Mr. Steel.
"Yes, it looks plausible, but so does all fiction. You 're taking a chance. You 're losing time. If it fails " "But if it succeeds?" "Well, go and bring back a story. If you don't, look out. It 's against my better judgment anyway. Remember I told you that." Skaggs shot out of the office, and within an hour and a half had boarded a fast train for the South.
Do you remember telling me once that 'Zanoni' was a splendid book, and that I ought to read it?" "Pshaw! No. I must have been a young fool. But it seems that I had the grace even then to desire your sympathy." "I assure you I read it most reverently down in Wiltshire, where Nelly kept a select library of fiction concealed underneath her mattress; and I believed every word of it.
In calling Cooper the greatest of American novelists, we have not incurred much risk of contradiction. Others may rival some surpass him in this or that province of the art of fiction; but as a master of the art in its broad aspect, he is facile princeps.
I took in what I could in a cursory glance and I marvelled that there could be so much apparent concentrated comfort so far away from city civilisation; but, when my guide pulled aside the curtain on the wall and disclosed rows and rows of books behind a glass front, books ancient and modern, books of religion, philosophy, medicine, history, fiction and poetry, at least a thousand of them, I gave up trying any more to fathom what manner of a man he was.
Knowing what a number of enemies he had among the Parisian journalists and critics, whom he had satirized with increased causticity in his latest fiction, the author endeavoured to pack the theatre with his friends, but there was a large leakage in the sale of tickets; and, on the eventful evening, the seats were occupied by a majority of persons hostile to him.
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