Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/88



perfect truth may L. E. L.'s opinion of a gifted author be applied to herself: "We know no writer who has united so much philosophy with so much imagination. She uses her power to make us feel, chiefly to make us think; it is the consequences which she draws from her creations which force reflection to succeed to interest. Read her pages after the first vivid effect of the story is departed, and you will be surprised at the vast mass of moral investigation and truth which they contain." Proceed we now, then, to examine the prose writings of L. E. L., from which our introductory remarks have perhaps detained us too long. Only, that being aware of some existent mistakes relative to the value of fiction as an instrument of moral benefit, it seemed that an attempt to demonstrate its general capability for usefulness might increase the interest of analyzing, and assist in appreciating, in one particular instance, this adaptation of fiction, together with its rightly-applied influences. Miss Landon's shorter prose writings, scattered through various annuals and periodicals, cannot now be specified, though many of them would create a name for writers of less note than herself. Some of her critical papers are especially beautiful; her faculty of appreciation was peculiarly vivid, and it was ever allowed most generous expression. The number of her miscellaneous papers is doubtless far greater than may be supposed; but these we must for the present leave; and, after mentioning "Traits and Trials of Early Life," a sweet and most touching little volume for children, pass on now to her three