William Dean Howells. I confess I do not care to judge any work of the imagination without first applying this test to it. We must ask ourselves before anything else. Is it true? true to the motives, the impulses, the principles that shape the life of actual men and women?” 2021/2212021/2/21 4 William Dean Howells: “ I confess I do not care to judge any work of the imagination without first applying this test to it. We must ask ourselves before anything else. Is it true? –true to the motives, the impulses, the principles that shape the life of actual men and women?