of Time?
The question is discussed in an article contributed by Lord Ernie to "John o' London's Weekly."
Answering distinctly in_ the negative, he says the novel has "opened out new casements in the minds of millions."
In 1886 prose fiction wrested from theology the first place in the annual issue of new publications from the press, Lord Ernie writes. {t has never lost the lead which it then assumed. For many years it rapidly increased its numerical superiority, till in 1906 it more than trebled the output of its rival.
Novels have not won their predominance without a struggle. To the rich literature of protest such} men of genius as Rabelais and Cervantes have contributed. There have always been those who regard novel-reading as not only profitless but mischievous. The prejudice persists. If the present President of the Board of Education allows "Tvanhoe,"' and 'The Last of the Barons" in the schoolroom, educational reformers have recently banished "Cinderella" and 'Puss in Boots' from the nursery.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.