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USES OF FICTION.
If it be true, that "Example is better than precept," it must be wise to avail ourselves of its utility whenever we desire most beneficially to influence our fellow-creatures. The truth of this adage, like most others that have passed into axioms, grows out from among the very roots of human nature, and arises from the present connexion of mind with matter, which connexion renders us more apt to receive impressions from what is presented in some actual and tangible form, than from mere intellectual abstractions. Composed, as we are, of body and spirit, we seem to have an instinctive liking for objects which appeal to both the component parts of our being. We almost require an outward representation of inward thoughts and feelings. This is a natural propensity, and an universal taste.
In the childhood of society—the civilized state of man—this propensity displays itself in allegorical language and symbolical representations. In actual childhood it is discoverable in the eager delight with which children will leave their play to listen to a story; in the illusions with which they frequently amuse themselves by "pretending," as they call this sort of pleasure; and in the facility with which instruction will be received through the media of sensible signs. With scarcely less delight do those of maturer years resign themselves to the spell of the enchanter, who raises around them his creations animated with life, and actuated by like passions with themselves.
