Nature will never be anything but dry. You may as well try to disregard Nature and Commonsense in Literature as in Chemistry, which is to say that the thing cannot be done at all with success.

25a. All great literature is rooted in life and experience. In the meantime, then, I offer these very explicit and very emphatic considerations and testimonies in favour of the first critical doctrine for which I contend-namely, that an essential requisite of a poem or of any other literary or artistic work is that it shall exhibit a general and essential conformity with the truth of Nature; or to repeat the doctrine in the form already stated: The first requirement of a poem is that it shall depict Nature, make it clear to our apprehension, and arouse such emotions within us as might be aroused by the actual view of Nature. A poem is, to some extent at least, proved to have merit when it conforms with this requirement; whilst in so far as it fails to achieve such conformity, it will be to that extent at least worthless or worse than worthless. To be of worth any book of any kind must be grounded and rooted in life and experience.

26. But neither in literature nor in Art should any attempt be made to confound representation with reality.-But whilst it is the object of literature and art to arouse our emotions, it should be understood that in trying to arouse such emotions no attempt is to be made to confound representation with reality. "It is false that any representation is mistaken for reality; that any dramatic fable in its materiality was ever credible, or, for a single moment, was ever credited. Imitations produce pain or pleasure, not because they are mistaken for realities, but because they bring realities to mind." 1 It is probably

1 Johnson, 'Works,' Vol. v. pp. 112-4 (Lynam's Edition).

more satisfactory to see a young man acting Lear than one of eighty. As you look upon a picture you do not see something that is real, but something that draws upon the imagination." 1 In requiring a work of literature or art to be true to Nature, I do not mean such truth as might be mistaken for Nature, but only such qualities as shall report Nature vividly.

27. Summary of the Chapter.-Summarising this chapter, I should say

(1) That in all descriptions of persons, places, scenes, or things, we should expect to find essential truth to Nature.

(2) That in all kinds of narrative and representation we should expect to find essential truth to Nature, or, what one might call, historic credibility. In such works, for instance, as ' Waverley,' ' Guy Mannering,' 'The Antiquary,' we have superlative truth to Nature. Or take Stevenson's 'Treasure Island.' Part I. of this story is excellent. The Old Sea Dog, Black Dog, and the Blind Man-all seem to be vital and first-rate; but, it seems to me, the story degenerates into a yarn of adventures, both conventional and incredible. 'The Master of Ballantrae ' manifests similar defects, in the latter part of which, as noted by Sir George Douglas, a great écroulement takes place. In 'The Treasure of Franchard' we have in Desprez and

1 Sir Henry Irving, quoted by Hutton, ' Impressions of America,' Vol. i. p. 224. So Louis Calvert: The actor succeeds best "when he attempts not to copy life but to suggest it."- Problems of the Actor,' p. 177. "There are no bounds to illusion, while realism is limited by the dimensions of the stage."-Ib., p. 178.

2 See Horace, 'De Arte Poetica,' 1-30.

3 Life of James Hogg,' p. 103,

Madame Desprez and in their adopted boy, Jean Marie, clever character sketches, but the story is weak, and does not carry conviction: only a story, one would say. 'Weir of Hermiston' is an unfinished masterpiece, reporting Nature in every paragraph; and, to take a living writer, so do some of Thomas Hardy's great novels.

(3) That in every kind of plot we should expect to find historic credibility-credibility sufficient to force upon us the conviction that (a) the thing asserted or represented (epic or dramatic) either happened or might have happened; (b) that the assigned epic or dramatic cause was adequate to the alleged epic or dramatic effect; or, conversely, that the alleged effect arose naturally from the assigned cause. matic cause and effect should be as closely related, as convincing and incontestable, as historic cause and effect. It is this closeness or inevitability in the sequences of a story or a drama that gives it the real grip and interest of a life-history. Refer again for illustration to the Scott Novels and the others just named.

Dra

As

(4) That in the epic or dramatic pourtrayal of persons we should expect each one to be historically conceivable and credible, and to talk and act from beginning to end in clear consistency with his character. Horace says: It will make a wide difference whether it be Davus who speaks or a hero; a man well-stricken in years, or a hot young fellow in his bloom; a matron of distinction, or an officious nurse; a roaming merchant, or the cultivator of a

verdant little farm; a Colchian or an Assyrian; one educated at Thebes or one at Argos." When, for example, in 'The School for Scandal' the serving-man Trip says to the money-lender, "I could give you a mortgage on some of his winterclothes, with equity of redemption before November, or you shall have the reversion of the French velvet, or a post-obit on the blue and silver," and so on, he is not speaking in character; we find it wellnigh incredible that any serving-man ever spoke in this fashion. We put it

down as wholly factitious.

1 See also Lord Kames, 'Elements of Criticism,' Vol. i. p. 451.

136

CHAPTER VI.

TRUTH TO NATURE: HOW LIMITED
AND EXPANDED.

66

1. I have been strongly urging the necessity of Truth to Nature in Literature. It might be said in reply: "Very good, but probably no play or story ever written is quite true to Nature. The events of 'Hamlet,' it might be said, never took place in three hours; that they were indeed wholly impossible both by Time and Space measurements; that no man ever had such interviews with his father's ghost as Hamlet is represented to have had; nor spoke such soliloquies; nor conversed in blank verse." Our objector might then continue: "But yet though thus obviously not contained within the four quarters of Nature, the play is, by universal consent perhaps, a very good play. How are you going to deal with the discrepancy apparent between these facts and your theory? To this I answer that, by his constructive faculty, the literary artist may sometimes modify and contract, sometimes expand, Nature. This may be done in three ways: firstly, by Idealisation; secondly, by Invention; and thirdly, by what might be called be called Creative Phantasy.