can writer, with which I will conclude this

volume :

"If they (ie., the ideals we set before us) are consistent with the conditions of our human. nature and our human life, if they are conformed to the physical and moral laws of our nature, and the government and will of God, they are healthful and ennobling. Such ideals can scarcely be too high or too ardently and steadfastly adhered to. But if they are false in their theory of life and happiness, if they are untrue to the conditions of our actual existence, if they involve the disappointment of our hopes, and discontent with real life, they are the bane of all enjoyments, and fatal to true happiness. The brief excitement which these unreal dreams occasion, however highly wrought this excitement may be, is a poor offset to the painful contrasts which they necessarily involve." * The author is here speaking of the day-dreams of our waking thoughts; but what he says applies equally to the fictions of the Novelist.

* Porter on The Human Intellect,' pp. 371-2. New York, 1869.