that succession of incidents, if it is to be seized and immortalized by art, is to be preferred which excites surprise in and at the moment of allision-the crisis,-the climax of the plot. This object is best gained by the choice of a commencing point from which, by logical resultance, and strict adherence to the laws of the organic growth of events (epigenesis), two exodes or modes of solving the difficulty become possible.

"Animum nunc huc celerem nunc dividit illuc."

A vivid and pleasing surprise occasions intense delight, and this delight is enhanced when it is quite evident that it has not been snatched by trickery, but gained by the genuine evolution of life and character, or by honest inventiveness.

The conditions of interest are verisimilitude, causative coherency, dexterous evolution, unity of design held to through a multiplicity of effects, and the unexpectedness of the adopted exode, always provided that in accepting any dénouement it be evident that it is a natural result from the growth of events, and that it is not a mere laying hold of a fortunate accident for the extrication, at once of the author and his plastic creations, from personal difficulty. The moral feelings, the sympathies, and the reason must each be satisfied by the upshot and at the close. To particularize and enumerate,—there must be in a good plot, a root of thought, a centre-aim, a comprehensible extent and form, an outline, a com. mencement, middle, end, a successive picturing, an interest, a living reality and realization, an issue, and a growing organic progress ; and all must be so combined as to work upon and into the sympathies of the soul. Hence the Horatian maxim, "In medias res rapit."

The time of a story ought to be such as would give scope for the existence of the actors, sweep to their various peculiarities and characteristics, and possibility to the incidents composing the plot. This places a limit and restraint upon invention, and necessitates the study of the epoch-its chief characters and characteristics; its circumstances, conditions, states, and history; its manners, customs, and costumes; its style of speech, thought, action, and activity. Within the circuit of the possibilities of the time or age, the incidents of the story must be confined, if it be desired to preserve that unity of feeling on which the impression of life and reality so peculiarly depends. Not only must the conception and individualization of the characters be circumscribed by this sensibility to the age, or the spirit of the age, under which the reader's thought is brought, but all the details,-minute, yet not over minute,— require to be harmonized and brought into agreement with the known facts of history regarding the period.

Scenery is also a limit to invention. Space is a fact as stubborn as time, and as unyielding; the imagination cannot altogether vanquish it. The dauntless variety of thought must submit to the

"This way and that, dividing the swift mind."

imprisonment of geography; and even geology and climatology will occasionally interfere with the freedom of the human mind. Scenic truthfulness must be maintained, not only in descriptive sketches, whether of the scenes and operations of Nature, or of the works of art that adorn them, but also in the finer shades of association and of figurative speech over which outward nature wields such powers. Acts themselves, still oftener intentions, may often be overruled by geographic or topographic possibilities.

It is of paramount importance, therefore, that the scene of a novel should be well laid, both in the plot and in the author's mind; not only that a true and accurate presentment may be made, but also that a proper consistency be preserved and observed between the events, conversations, &c., related and the scenes in which they are reported to have taken place, as well as between the characters fixed on, and the possibilities of their development as stated in the given region or place.

Character is the source of power and action, of resignation and patience, and of operating or being operated upon. It is that unity and community of energies which, though each capable of individual excitation and activity, usually exist in such balance and equipoise, or at all events in such collective and correlative conditions and coincidence, as give a certain determinate individuality to a person, and make him capable both of impressing, and being impressed by, others.

Individuality is therefore the result of character.

Individuality is that compound of extrinsic and intrinsic qualities by which one person is marked off and known as different from all other persons; which so reveals, connotes, and denotes, any person that no one can be confounded with or mistaken for him, or he with or for them. That which gives a real, visible, yet indivisible, being and entity or conscious personality and differentiated oneness and separateness to any character.

Individuality of characterization is essential in a novel to prevent confusion, to make recognition possible, and to make the presentation complete and perfect. Hence, coincidence and comminglement of characteristics in persons holding part in a story must be avoided; and distinct and readily marked traits, touches, minute differences in look, voice, gesture, tastes, habits, sentiments, thought, expression, action, and associative sympathies, ought to be furnished to the reader, that no risk of misconception may be run.

Character is that series of elements which determine the functional activities of each individual in any given set of circumstances; that under the excitement of any motive or motives, and in any conjuncture of affairs, enables one to form a sort of inferential calculation regarding the results to which each individual will give adherence or movement.

Passions are the great disintegrants of character, and careful nicety is specially required in any narrative wherein the interactions of causes and results depend upon the operations of the

passions, or call them into exercise. The philosophy of passion requires close, minute, and patient study, in order that, in the exhibition of their activities in a story, the formative impulses may be adequate to the production of the precise amount of excitement shown; that the display of the operations of passion may accord with the character in whom they are induced; and that the effects stated to be produced on the after stages of the story may be such as experience warrants us to believe might be the results of the described and exhibited emotion.

Besides these extraordinary manifestations of character, there is the constant effervescence of mind, heart, and action, which each person undergoes, and shows in the common occurrences of the society in which he moves, in the ordinary circumstances which surround and affect him, and in the usual events which occur in his neighbourhood, or among those in whom he interests himself.

Of characters or persons the novelist may select as many and of such kinds as he chooses, and he may work them up into any combination which the law of permutations makes possible; but he must hold the reins of his imagination so far under check as to make each character, in each circumstance, act in conformity with the predetermined nature with which, at the outstart, he has been endowed; or he must exhibit and explain the manner in which a change has been caused in his disposition, manners, habits, tendencies, or sympathies. The influences of character ought to be seen spreading through the whole scheme of action; the causes which check aspiration and lead to unaccomplished hopes, which excite slumbering passions or still and calm surges of aroused emotion, which work from the outward surroundings of a man inward upon his nature, or which throw out their living influences from the very inmost juices and sap of the mind, must be exhibited in truthful accordance with the organic modes and functions of each given mind. The self-sufficing life which interpenetrates everything with its own pervasive effectuality must be distinguished from that languid spirituality and quietism which admits of the continual interfusion of external influences; and these again, from those whose chymic nature gives and takes, affects and is affected, and are not only capable of being changed, but of becoming also the causes of changes.

Character is the flower of which thought is the root, and wit and wisdom the perfume, and action the fruit. It is the efflux of the ever-exciting and germinal power of the soul, and is, in fact, its outer garment. It is in general not only existent, but consistent, persistent, and resistent-it is, and acts and reacts.

But though plot and time, scenery and character, be each in its own isolation capable of being dealt with by the novelist with power and skill, this will not suffice to satisfy the conditions of a true Logic. These elements must all be wrought up into a consistent whole-each element harmonious with each other, and so associated as to strike the mind with a oneness of effect such as shall

educe and sustain interest, and produce a gratified complacency in the reader.

Nor is even this all-a skilful reproduction or lifelike envisagement of images or forms of scene or thought; an elaborate copy or simulacrum of history, or an embodiment and external projection of a set of arche-typal ideas, will not content the demands of Art. Art is not imitation, it is creation. A picture without the life of thought in it-a poem without some divine essence from the soul of man—a statue without the idealist's conceptive skill and constructive touch-a building destitute of harmoniousness of plan and purpose, who can imagine such things? The transfused energy, the masterly force of conscious and deliberative thought, gives each of these that vitality and character which makes them partake of the immortality of their executants. The chymic power of mind and heart inworks itself through the materials of outward nature chosen by the artist,-in whatever sphere he labours, and out of the actual begets the ideal. Such have, in all ages, been the characteristics of the master-wielders of Genius. They have flashed the spirit of life into the elements of existence, and they have sprung into unity and action. An indestructible speciality has been imparted to them, and they have been redeemed for ever from dulness and death by an indelible charm, fascination, and interest. The supreme and ultimate reach of human thought, however, is displayed in that exquisite creative geniuswhich has been termed Poetry. Fiction, as we have said, is the Epic of modern life. It is also a sort of experimental living-a kind of extension of experience, and a species of hypothetic metempsychosis. It presents and represents men, modes of life, social phenomena, interests, sympathies, circumstances, wrongs, virtues, passions, and activities with which, in their various forms, manifestations, and connections, as related, we may have or have had no acquaintanceship, and so we become widerthoughted and farther-taught. We may not be sinewed for action, nor แ Strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield;"

and many forms of life may be to us mere speculative enigmas, but if a novel be written with tact and art, discrimination and sympathy, we may make them a discipline for thought-they may teach us to look into the determining causes of character and action; to cast our eye backward, around, and forward upon circumstances; to notice how men and societies are modified and developed, how their interests and sympathies deepen and extend in range, and to see for ourselves the long and far results of action; and thus we may acquire a deeper insight into the moral laws under which we live, and, from those "folded annals” of life and incident, a clear broad light may be cast upon our thoughts regarding being, character, activity, and destiny.

We may resume this theme again, and endeavour to expound The Rhetoric of Novel-Writing.

Religion.

IS THE BIBLE ALONE A SUFFICIENT RULE OF

FAITH?

AFFIRMATIVE REPLY.

IN winding up the controversy upon the Rule of Faith, on the affirmative side, our course will be this :-We shall examine seriatim the articles of our opponents, and then endeavour to answer the objections raised by them to arguments adduced by us. We must then leave it with the candid reader to determine, by the truthfulness and consistency of statements made, and by the force and soundness of arguments used, where the truth is to be found,-or whether "the Bible alone is a sufficient Rule of Faith," or whether it is not.

The first champion that enters the lists against us is Pope Gregory:" let us attend to what he teaches. We quite agree with him that "the root of the differences" which exist between Protestants and Roman Catholics is to be found in the question before us. But "Pope Gregory" must be very ignorant of the written controversies which have been held between the two contending parties, from the time of the Reformation to the present, if he adds that this question receives little attention at the hands of Protestants, as though they were afraid of treading upon such slippery ground.

Three propositions are advanced by "Pope Gregory," by which he would show the insufficiency of the Protestant Rule of Faith. Let us look at them.

First. The Bible was never intended to be the only Rule of Faith. And why? Because it does not declare itself to be such. Does it then declare its insufficiency, or intimate that something else is to be added to render it more perfect? Show us this, and the proposition is established. This you fail to show. But cannot the opposite of your statement be gathered from the Bible; nay, has it not been gathered, and that largely, both by "Clement" and myself? What would you add to make the Bible more sufficient? Tradition? Why, did not Christ condemn the oral traditions of the elders, declaring that by them they frustrated the commandments of God, and made the word of God of none effect (Mark vii. 9, 13). And where is the deficiency in Holy Scripture which you could supply? It is not in precept, for "the law of the Lord is perfect." It is not in doctrine, for the Scriptures "are profitable for doctrine," able to teach all things which make wise unto salvation. The fact is, the Bible needs no supplement, and does declare its own sufficiency.