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870 SKETCHES.
profoundest and most weighty questions of life, of the
state, and of society, throng along this lonely, loving, bleed-
ing human heart to receive light and judgment.
And what is the man who is here the hero; who makes
our hearts beat, our eyes shed tears ; who lets the people of
two worlds feel the same interest, the same sorrow, make
the same reflections, and converse on the same common
subject ; a subject which belongs to — humanity at large?
He is the humblest, the most defenseless, the most despised
of men; a man who can scarcely read, who cannot write
at all—a poor negro-slave. But he is a man in the high-
est acceptation of the word, for he is a Christian. And
humanity rejoices in him over its highest life.
Thus far the divine hero has advanced, and thus far the
romance has followed his footsteps in raising man.
The romance, and its sisters the novels and sketches,
have likewise this merit, that they make us acquainted
with far distant lands and nations, in a more hearty and
living manner than other books are capable of doing it.
Travels give us a description of outward things and situa-
tions. Scientific works can inform us of a country’s geog-
raphy and geology, of its Flora and Fauna, etc., etc., — and
of the character of its people. The romance, on the other
hand, lets us see the heart of the people and its inward life.
It opens to us the home; shows us the father, the
youth, the maiden, the child, the servant; shows us what
constitutes the aim of their life, their joys and sorrows,
their work and pastime; shows us the trees which afford
them shade, and the flowers which delight them ; lets us, in
a word, see man in his human world, and lets us see that
world in its peculiar form in such a land and amongst such
a people.
And we know scarcely a greater, and at the same time a
1 The English novels “ Mary Barton” and “ Alton Locke,” discuss like-
wise the great social questions of the day (in England) in their relation to
man, who in them appears in his highest signification as a member of soci
ety. The political or social novel thus appears upon the stage.
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