The Novelist. mer. MANZONI. It As I stood by the taffrail of the little steamer that plies up and down Lake Como, a good-natured fellow-passenger, whose costume and bearing denoted the experienced gentleman, indicated the various points of interest along the beautiful shores. was a clear, warm day of that enchanting season, in those climates, when spring is just verging into sumThe atmosphere was transparent, and every indentation of the beach had a well-defined relief; the sails of the fishing-boats were reflected in the water as distinctly as if it were a mirror; and the cloudless sky wore the densely azure hue peculiar to that region. My companion urbanely pointed out every object worthy of note, which the shifting landscape afforded; here was the site of Pliny's country-seat, there the former residence of Queen Caroline of England, and now we are directly opposite the villa of Pasta; but there was a more genial animation in his look and voice, as a low promontory loomed in sight, neither remarkable for the cultivation at its base, nor the picturesque beauty of its treeless slope: "Just behind that ridge," said he, "is the road which Don Abbondio followed until he encountered the bravi who forbade him to marry the Promessi Sposi." The perfectly natural manner in which the locality of an imaginary scene was thus designated, as if quite as real and more interesting than the abodes of actual persons, struck me as the very best evidence of Manzoni's genius and fame. All genuine creations assert and maintain a distinct personality; and this is, perhaps, the readiest and most faithful test whereby the legitimate characters of fiction may be distinguished from the counterfeit. The most universal triumph of this kind is that of Shakespeare, of whose personages we habitually speak not only as actual, but world-familiar celebrities. It is probable that if the origin of those characters in fiction, which are recognised by the general feeling of mankind as living originals, could be analyzed, it would appear that their essential features were drawn carefully from life. The chief attraction of the novels of the reign of George the Third is said to have been, that the individuals depicted were well known at that period, and this fact gave a relish to the infirmities of character thus revealed. But a more recent instance occurs in regard to several of the best delineations of Dickens, whose Pecksniff, Squeers, brothers Cheeryble, and others, are confidently identified; so that, even if there is an error in the designation, it only shows how nearly the author followed nature. Another convincing proof of the substantial relation to our experience, such daguerreotypes from life bear, is the habit so prevalent of naming our acquaintances from the well-drawn characters of able novelists. To realize the variety of fanciful beings who have been added by modern genius to the world's vast gallery of memorable portraits, it is only requisite to summon before our minds the long array of Scott's familiar creations. Charles Swain has done this in a poem entitled Dryburgh Abbey; and the obsequies of no human being were ever graced by so glorious an array of the representatives of human nature, acknowledged as such by the verdict of mankind, as this procession of his own "beings of the mind, and not of clay," which are described as following Sir Walter to the tomb. An avidity for fabulous narrative seems to have characterized the Oriental races. The indolent life of that dreamy clime naturally induced a necessity of being amused. Professed story-tellers were patronised by those in authority; and doubtless listened to with as earnest an attention as the lazzaroni on the Mole at Naples now bestow upon a reader of Tasso. Pastorals were probably the first improvised tales of rural districts. The more exacting imaginations of Eastern potentates called forth "Arabian Nights;" and, subsequently, when the western world was alive with the lays of troubadours and the thirst for gallant emprise, came the tales of chivalry destined chiefly to be remembered through the genial satire of Cervantes. The supremacy of the Church brought saintly legends in vogue; the spirit of maritime adventure led to the production of countless "voyages imaginaires;" civic revolutions, of a later period, gave birth to political romance, of which Utopia is the English type; and the more complicated interests and varied drama of modern society, finds its most welcome and perhaps faithful portraiture in one or another of the diversified species of the novel. Thus it is evident that from the Song of Solomon and the fables of mythology, to the last hot-pressed emanation from Albemarle Street, Fiction has served as a mirror to successive ages, reflecting, with more or less truth, events and manners, in hues not so emphatic as the drama, but with greater detail and more elaborate exactitude. There are few more interesting literary processes than the composition of a novel, artistically wrought and genially inspired. If we analyze the method, it seems to be very like that by which a fine picture is executed. First, there are historical materials to collect, the costume, manners, and spirit of the time chosen, to be studied and reproduced; then the dramatic incidents or plot to be arranged-corresponding to the action of the subject in pictorial art; the impressive background of history, the just per |