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Show THE PRIEST-NOVELIST. Should a priest write fiction? Certainly, Cer-tainly, if he can, says Rev. Mortimer E. Twomey, in Donahue's for July. Fiction in its broad sense is an element ele-ment of varied writings. It has pervaded per-vaded the epic and the drama. Homer and Virgil, Racine and Shakespeare have used it with marvelous effect. It has been to the author of Don Quixote and to the readers of that genial and stirring book an inspiration or a delight. Old is fiction, new in its received and general form of today, to-day, the modern novel. So again to the question: Should the priest write novels? Surely, if he can. So few are the priests who have ventured upon this path, that it would seem the great number either lack, not theoretically, but personaly, the knowledge of its utility or the skill to use its advantages. advan-tages. Of the few who have ventured into the walks of fiction, some have met with success, more with failure. The results have-not been towards the great encouragement of the onlookers. Many who realize what good may be accomplished through novels, and what harm is being done, are awaiting the advent of the true story-tellers (we possess a very limited number) to do that which they desire to see done, while they may not themselves enter into a work for which they lack somewhat some-what of natural aptitude and present leisure. |