good story? For the reader of to-day is much like the child and the
primitive man in this respect, that he must be attracted and held by the
story element of a narrative before he learns to appreciate its style or
moral significance. The story element is therefore essential to the novel;
but where the story originates is impossible to say. As well might we seek
for the origin of the race; for wherever primitive men are found, there we
see them gathering eagerly about the story-teller. In the halls of our
Saxon ancestors the scop and the tale-bringer were ever the most welcome
guests; and in the bark wigwams of the American Indians the man who told
the legends of Hiawatha had an audience quite as attentive as that which
gathered at the Greek festivals to hear the story of Ulysses's wanderings.
To man's instinct or innate love for a story we are indebted for all our
literature; and the novel must in some degree satisfy this instinct, or
fail of appreciation.

The second question which we ask concerning a work of fiction is, How far
does the element of imagination enter into it? For upon the element of
imagination depends, largely, our classification of works of fiction into
novels, romances, and mere adventure stories. The divisions here are as
indefinite as the border land between childhood and youth, between instinct
and reason; but there are certain principles to guide us. We note, in the
development of any normal child, that there comes a time when for his
stories he desires knights, giants, elves, fairies, witches, magic, and
marvelous adventures which have no basis in experience. He tells
extraordinary tales about himself, which may be only the vague remembrances
of a dream or the creations of a dawning imagination,--both of which are as
real to him as any other part of life. When we say that such a child
"romances," we give exactly the right name to it; for this sudden interest
in extraordinary beings and events marks the development of the human
imagination,--running riot at first, because it is not guided by reason,
which is a later development,--and to satisfy this new interest the
romance[212] was invented. The romance is, originally, a work of fiction in
which the imagination is given full play without being limited by facts or
probabilities. It deals with extraordinary events, with heroes whose powers
are exaggerated, and often adds the element of superhuman or supernatural
characters. It is impossible to draw