A History of English Literature | Page 3

instinctive
sense for that which is amusing; and (3) the sense for Pathos. Pathos
differs from Tragedy in that Tragedy (whether in a drama or elsewhere)
is the suffering of persons who are able to struggle against it, Pathos the
suffering of those persons (children, for instance) who are merely
helpless victims. Wit, the brilliant perception of incongruities, is a
matter of Intellect and the complement of Humor.
IMAGINATION AND FANCY. Related to Emotion also and one of
the most necessary elements in the higher forms of literature is
Imagination, the faculty of making what is absent or unreal seem
present and real, and revealing the hidden or more subtile forces of life.
Its main operations may be classified under three heads: (1) Pictorial
and Presentative. It presents to the author's mind, and through him to
the minds of his readers, all the elements of human experience and life
(drawing from his actual experience or his reading). 2. Selective,
Associative, and Constructive. From the unorganized material thus
brought clearly to the author's consciousness Imagination next selects
the details which can be turned to present use, and proceeds to combine
them, uniting scattered traits and incidents, perhaps from widely
different sources, into new characters, stories, scenes, and ideas. The
characters of 'Silas Marner,' for example, never had an actual existence,
and the precise incidents of the story never took place in just that order
and fashion, but they were all constructed by the author's imagination
out of what she had observed of many real persons and events, and so
make, in the most significant sense, a true picture of life. 3. Penetrative
and Interpretative. In its subtlest operations, further, Imagination
penetrates below the surface and comprehends and brings to light the
deeper forces and facts--the real controlling instincts of characters, the
real motives for actions, and the relations of material things to those of
the spiritual world and of Man to Nature and God.
Fancy may for convenience be considered as a distinct faculty, though

it is really the lighter, partly superficial, aspect of Imagination. It deals
with things not essentially or significantly true, amusing us with
striking or pleasing suggestions, such as seeing faces in the clouds,
which vanish almost as soon as they are discerned. Both Imagination
and Fancy naturally express themselves, often and effectively, through
the use of metaphors, similes, and suggestive condensed language. In
painful contrast to them stands commonplaceness, always a fatal fault.
IDEALISM, ROMANCE, AND REALISM. Among the most
important literary qualities also are Idealism, Romance, and Realism.
Realism, in the broad sense, means simply the presentation of the
actual, depicting life as one sees it, objectively, without such selection
as aims deliberately to emphasize some particular aspects, such as the
pleasant or attractive ones. (Of course all literature is necessarily based
on the ordinary facts of life, which we may call by the more general
name of Reality.) Carried to the extreme, Realism may become ignoble,
dealing too frankly or in unworthy spirit with the baser side of reality,
and in almost all ages this sort of Realism has actually attempted to
assert itself in literature. Idealism, the tendency opposite to Realism,
seeks to emphasize the spiritual and other higher elements, often to
bring out the spiritual values which lie beneath the surface. It is an
optimistic interpretation of life, looking for what is good and
permanent beneath all the surface confusion. Romance may be called
Idealism in the realm of sentiment. It aims largely to interest and
delight, to throw over life a pleasing glamor; it generally deals with
love or heroic adventure; and it generally locates its scenes and
characters in distant times and places, where it can work unhampered
by our consciousness of the humdrum actualities of our daily
experience. It may always be asked whether a writer of Romance
makes his world seem convincingly real as we read or whether he
frankly abandons all plausibility. The presence or absence of a
supernatural element generally makes an important difference. Entitled
to special mention, also, is spiritual Romance, where attention is
centered not on external events, which may here be treated in
somewhat shadowy fashion, but on the deeper questions of life.
Spiritual Romance, therefore, is essentially idealistic.

DRAMATIC POWER. Dramatic power, in general, means the
presentation of life with the vivid active reality of life and character
which especially distinguishes the acted drama. It is, of course, one of
the main things to be desired in most narrative; though sometimes the
effect sought may be something different, as, for instance, in romance
and poetry, an atmosphere of dreamy beauty. In a drama, and to some
extent in other forms of narrative, dramatic power culminates in the
ability to bring out the great crises with supreme effectiveness.
CHARACTERS. There is, generally speaking, no greater