To so affect a reader that his course of life becomes altered,
must prove that the moving influence of fiction is strong
indeed. With a weapon of such power placed in our hands, it
rests with us to say how it shall be employed. If it has been
used, carelessly so that low, selfish thoughts have been
developed, it is our duty and joyous privilege to so write that
lofty, noble sentiments shall rise and grow, tearing out all
evil from the heart, as a growing tree splits a rock that once
held it as a tiny seed in its moss-lined crevice. If the novel
has inspired doubts as to the value, the grandeur, and joy of
living, fostering that slow, insidious canker of pessimism which
like the poisoned arrows of the Indian permeates the system
with its virus, the novel must now be made to bring calm peace
by presenting noble lives of heroism, self-forgetfulness and
service by a high ideal consistently followed.--_Book Chat._
(2206)
See TIME, PRECIOUS.