Colonel Ingersol spoke the truth in a recent lecture when he
said that a realist can be no more than an imitator or a copyist. His
philosophy makes the wax that receives and retains an image of an artist.
Realism degrades and impoverishes. The real sustains the same relation to
ideal that a stone does to a statue, or that paint does to a painting."
"No," replied Leo, "a novel proper should be a love story spiced with
the beauties of nature and exciting adventures. A novel with a purpose,
Alfonso, should advertise under another name for it is a cheat. It is
often written with a deliberate attempt to beguile a person into reading
a story which the writer deliberately planned to be simply the medium of
conveying useful or useless information. Possibly a social panacea, or
the theme may include any subject from separating gold from the ocean,
to proving the validity of the latest theory on electricity."
"Leo, you go too far," said Mrs. Harris, "the modern novel that appears
in press and magazine, and later in book form, entering all our homes,
should teach high morality and contain only proper scenes and passages."
"But, mother," said Lucille, "you would thus debar many of the world's
masterpieces in literature.
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