he looked up doubtfully. 66 'Certainly," he said, "these quotations are very similar." It is probable that many other people made the same remark and remained undeceived.* Still, it is to be hoped that readers are left who hold that a book should be judged according to its merits and the skill with which its central ideas are handled, and not by the test of whether or no something can be raked from the literature of all times and countries that has a family resemblance to one or more of those ideas. If this hope is baseless novelists may throw aside their pens, and betake themselves to some more peaceful occupation. DITCHINGHAM, 1888. * These and kindred exercises in the art of criticism are by no means new. Gautier, in his preface to "Mademoiselle de Maupin,” which was published in 1830, alludes to them in these words: "Jusqu'ici, lorsqu'on avait voulu déprécier un ouvrage quelconque, on avait fait des citations fausses ou perfidement isolées; on avait tronqué des phrases de façon que l'auteur lui-même se fut trouvé le plus ridicule du monde, on lui avait intenté des plagiats imaginaires; on rapprochait des passages de son livre avec des passages d'auteurs anciens ou modernes qui n'y avaient pas le moindre rapport; on l'accusait en style de cuisinière, et avec force solécismes de ne pas savoir sa langue, . . . . on assurait sérieusement que son ouvrage poussait à l'anthropopagie, et que les lecteurs devenaient imman. quablement cannibales." LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "No! no!' cried Augusta, her heart moved. 'There is plenty of room in the boat'" Frontispiece "And to think that all this comes out of the brains of PAGE "Augusta gently lifted the sheet, revealing the sweet face of little Jeannie in her coffin" Johnnie" "Suddenly, growing faint or for some other cause, the figure 47 58 "For answer, she stretched out her hand and gave him one sweet look". 98 "Down went the books with a crash and a bang, and, carried "Just as the men came up, she got away somehow, and stood, looking very foolish". 169 247 259 |
