Tom Reed On Novels As Educators

It is surprising how mucli tliere is in the modern swarm of novéis, how mach of study and research. They do a part in the education of the world of which the schools and colleges might well be proud. Where can you find out and live the life of the iifteenth century as you can in Charles Keed's "The Cloister and the llearth?" Where wil] you find the conrse of adversity and prosperity in the world, and their successiou, better depicted than in another of his novels, with so sentimental a title that it would be dangerous even to quote it. "Who studied London life as Dickens did, and society as did. Thackeray? Where can you find Scottish history and the days of chivalry as in Sir Walter? Has any historian ever been (ulier enough to whiten the l)uke of Marborough since Thackeray wrote "Henry Esmond?" 1 atn quito aware that none of tliese are very modern, buteverybody has read them, and the exainples xplains my idea. Almost all the novéis ofto-day so eagerly read are the results of study and thougtit, and couvey precious inforniation which we absorb almost without knowing it. - Hou. Thos. 11. Reed in The Illustrated American.