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she was, they might unawares have entertained an angel of truth.* [1]
We cannot leave this part of the argument for the usefulness of fiction without offering, in the name of all young people who have come under their influences, a most grateful acknowledgment for Miss Edgeworth's and Mrs. Sherwood's admirable tales; so full of principle exemplified in character,—so fraught with precept enforced by example.
Look on now to maturer years; does fiction then lose its influence? Have we not often found the moral truth, or the moral quality, which, in its abstract nature, has scarcely been apprehended by us, startling us into attention, fixing itself with powerful grasp on all our faculties, when clothed in its developed attributes,—when embodied in a real character?
As the agreeableness of fiction to our taste originates in the natural propensity previously considered, so likewise does the usefulness of fiction depend much on its agreeableness. If "a verse may sometimes win him who a sermon flies," so may a well-conceived and well-executed fiction win over at least
- ↑ * "Never tell me but that a child must be the better for reading anecdotes of generosity, kindliness and self-devotion. I am convinced that one of Miss Edgeworth's stories for children is worth all the questions and answers that ever made history easy, or geography light."
"Do you remember a little story called the ‘Rival Crusoes?' I cannot describe the effect it took on Frank, as I was reading it to him; but it seems to me that it gave him a more touching lesson against overbearing temper and of affectionate forgiveness than all the advice in the world could have done."—Romance and Reality, vol. 2. How many similar instances might every one observant of children supply!
