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    is the portrayal of human nature and human action . Mr . Dickens is the most dramatic of the novelists . He reflects the whole round of life , from the richest and most refined circles to the humblest and roughest ; and looks with a penetrating eye , and with the intuition of intense sympathy , into aU the depths of the human heart , all the secret nooks of the affections , all the crooked subtleties . of villany , all the tangled combinations of good and bad , which make us what we are . We do riot exaggerate when we say that his genius possesses sonie points of resemblance to that of Shakspeare—someling of the very thing which , more than anything else , makes Shakspeare the greatest of dramatic poets . It is not merely that Dickens is himself a poet , and in nothing so much as in his exquisite sensitiveness to those fine threads of analogy which connect the animate with the inanimate world , so that the still life of his scenes is constantly made to reflect the dominant emotion of the characters , in a manner which may appear extravagant to matter-of-fact minds , but which is wonderfully true to all who have ever felt emotion—it is not merely that many of his characters have in them

    such a strong and self-existent vitality that they have already become part of our actual experience , " and remain there like remembrances of our own life—it is not merely that Dickens has added phrases to the language , which are to be found in almost any column of a newspaper you may take up to read haphazard—it is not simply on these accounts that Dickens shows some affinity with Shakspeare , but much more on account of that feeling of universal sympathy with human nature which breathes through his pages like the ' broad and general' atmosphere . He soars above all considerations of sect , above all narrow isolations of creed ; and , though a more deeply religious writer is not to be found , in all those elements of religion which rise eternally from the natural emotions of love and reverence , he is never disputatiously theological or academically dogmatic . Certain Universitybred reviewers , whose shrivelled souls cannot understand the fresh , spontaneous efflorescence of genius , and who will accept no ^ old that does . not come to them impressed with the college stamp , niay ^ attect to despise the large regard of Dickens ; but the world will recognise its great ones whether or not they wear the uniform of cap and gown .

    As with his other works , so is it with Little Domt . The whole picture is quick and warm with life . Passing from the hot southern flush and glare of Marseilles , in the opening chapter , to the jgrim eld twilight house in London , with . Its haunting mysteries and uneasy secrets , in whicli Mrs . Clennam and Mr . Flintwinch plot and counterplot—changing from the dull prison rooms and yard , with their attendant poverty , made glorious by the divine light and love of Little Dorrit , to the stately palaces of Rome and Venice , glowing with the pomp of wealth—everywhere and under all circumstances , the vitality of the conceptions asserts itself with all the supremacy of genius . A complete character will start before you within the compass of a few lines ; as in the case of the little Frenchwoman of whom Mr . Dorrit purchases the gifts for Mrs . General , or in that of the Swiss host whom Mr . Dorrit atmost annihilates for a fancied slight , or in that of the landlady of the Break of Day at Chalons . But these are the mere overwhich must chiefl

    -flowings Of the cup . The main characters are those to we y look . Arid first of Mr . Dorrit . What awful truth and solemn voice of warning is there in that weak , selfish , pompous , insanely proud man !—• Sroud and vain in his poverty , while descending to depths of meanness ; aunting his shabby family scutcheon in the face of the visitors of whom he begs , and pretending to a gentlemanly independence while his daughter tous for him , almost starves for him ; equally , but not more , proud and vain when he suddenly becomes wealthy , and fancies himself compelled to resort to miserable shifts to conceal his former state , -which his daughter ' s devotion should have made noble in his eyes ; proud and vain to the last , though , when the over-excitement of his changed life topples over his reason and his health , he divulges in his mental wanderings the fact of his previous poverty , and dies with the shadow of the Marshalsea upon him . Mr . Dorrit is the very type of flunkeyism ; and our time stands in need of a lesson against that sordid vice . JBut a manly detestation of seryility is one of the most prominent elements in this tale . We see it again in the charac-Merdleit is well known

    ter of Mr ; Merdle , the swindling speculator . Mr . , , is a portrait from life ; but it may be as well to recollect that he is not merely a reflex of one individual . He is true to a very large , and it is to be feared , an increasing , class ; a class of individuals not merely corrupt in themselves , but the cause of corruption in others . What matter that the Merdles of real life , like the Merdle of Mr . Dickens's fiction , are poor in heart and brain—mere rattling husks of men , with nothing inside but a few dead conventional ideas and phrases ; what matter that they are dull in thought , embarrassed in manner , constantly taking theinselves into custody under their coat-cuffs with that intuition or their own villany noted by Mr . Dickens ; what matter that they tremble before their butlers , and move about their drawing-rooms like icebergs that have preserved all their coldness and lost all their sparkle ? They are rich , though by the ruin of others ; and Bar and Bishop , Horse-Guards and Treasury , Nobility and Commerce , bow down before tliom , till , as in the typical instance here portrayed , * the shining wonder , the new constellation , to be followed by the wise men bringing gifts , stops over certain carrion at the bottom of a bath ,

    and disappears . . , ., . , . . . Another form of worldly-minded ness and falsa pretence is exhibited in this romance in the character of Mr . Cusby , the Last of tho Patriarchs . How often is the world imposed upon by the smooth head , the silky grey locks , the broad-brimmed hat and sober gaiters , the benevolent smile and sleek , revolving phrases , of the Christopher Casbys ! while , all the time , the knowing Casbys , intent only on self , are in fact so many ogres grinding the bones of their fellow-cronturoa to make them bread , and something more . Subtly conceived and executed is this character of a fruudulont patiiuruh , who feeds himself ' like a good soul feeding some one else ; ' who snulus at the lire ' as if he were benevolently wishing it to burn him , that ho might forgive it : ' who , when he sits in the hot summer evening sipp ing a tumbler of golden sherry , lime-juice , and water , presentu ' a radiant appoarunco of aving , in his extensive benevolence , made the drink for tho human species , while ho himself wanted nothing but his own milk of human kindness ;

    whose beamy and bumpy bead , combined with his suave manners , suggests the idea of his having ' baptismal water on the brain ; ' and who utters his blundering platitudes with so much calm sweetness that he seems to be giving vent to the choicest specimens of benign , wisdom . These are touches , minute in themselves , but showing the finest wit and the deepest knowledge of character . We find the same courageous independence of thought once more exhibited in the scorching satire directed against our ' Circumlocution Offices '" and ' Tite Barnacle' legislators . . How much truth there is in that satire is shown by the fact of its being at once adopted by the popular mind . Against these shadows in the general picture—rendered still more lowering by the blackness of the assassin Rigaud or Blandois—the good characters of the book come out like sunshine . There is little Dorrit herself—one

    of Mr . Dickens ' s most beautiful creations ; and Clennam , the true gentleman and high-souled hero ; arid the noble-hearted , ehivalric , half-witted John Ghivery , most pathetic in his hopeless love for Little Dorrit ; and the goodnatured , though noisy and flippant , Flora Finching ( old Casby ' s daughter ) , not at all pathetic in her hopeless love for Clennam , though coming home to our sympathies in the thoroughly kind way in which she gives up Clennam to Little Dorrit , as John Chivery has given up Little Dorrit to Clennam ; and Mr . Pancks , the seemingly hard instrument of Mr . ^ Casby in collecting the patriarchal rents , but the final executor of poetical justice on that chief of impostors , and the purely disinterested agent in recovering their fortune for the Dorrit family . These are the golden rays that lighten the story ; the chief , of course , being Clennam and Little Dorrit . From those two characters , a soft , mild , grave , sad radiance streams from the beginning

    to the end of the book . And , by a beautiful sense of poetical fitness , Little Dorrit is brought back again to Clennam , after her long absence abroad , in the very prison and the very room where he had often "been so great a friend to her , and . where she is now to be so priceless a boon and angelical a comforter to him . And in the neighbouring church they are married , in the calm autumn weather which seems to typify their lives . We must confess to some disappointment at the explanation , towards the close of the book , of the mystery connected with Mrs . Clennam and the old house with its strange noises . It is deficient in clearness , and does not fulfil the expectations of the reader , which have been wound up to a high pitch . Indeed , the woof of the entire story does not hold . together with sufficient closeness—a fault perhaps inseparable from the mode of publication . The writing , however , shows all Mr . Dickens ' s singular union of

    close observation and rich fancy . A few instances suggest ; themselves as we write . Of Jeremiah Flintwincb , whose head is always on one side , so that the knotted ends of his cravat dangle under one ear , and who has ' a swollen and suffused look , ' we are told that ' he had a weird appearance of having hanged himself at one time or other , and of having gone about ever since halter and all , exactly as some timely hand had cut him down . ' The watch worn by the same old man was deposited In a deep pocket , ' and had a tarnished copper key moored above it , to show where it was sunk * The garret bedroom of the old house contains ' a lean set of fire irons like the skeleton of a set deceased , ' and ' & bedstead with four bare atomies of posts , each terminating in a spike , as if for the dismal accommodation of lodgersicho might prefer to impale themselves ? Very poetical , also , is the identification of the pent-up fire in Mrs . Clennam ' s sick-room with the invalid herself . ' The fire shone " sullenly all day and sullenly all night . On rare occasions , it

    flashed up pasionately as she did j but for the most part it was suppressed , like her , and preyed upon itself , evenly and slowly . ' The ljght ^ of this fire throws the shadows of Mrs . Clennam , old Flintwinch , and his wife , Mistress Affery , on a gateway opposite , like figures from a magic lantern . * As the room-ridden invalid settled for the night , these would gradually disappear : Mistress AfFery ' s magnified shadow always flitting about , last , until it finally glided away into the air , as though she were off upon a witch-excursion . Then the solitary light would burn unchangingly , until it burned pale before the dawn , and at last died under the breath of Mistress Affery , as her shadow descended on it from the witch-region of sleep . ' This is true poetry ; but there are a thousand such touches in the book , as in all Mr . Dickens ' s books , which every reader of cultivated perceptions will perceive for himself . In Little Dorrit , Mr . Dickens has made another imperishable addition to the literature of his country .

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    HERSCHELL'S ESSAYS . Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews , with Addresses and other Piece * By Sir John F . W . Hcrschell , Bart . Longman , and Co . The great name of Herschell will be certain to attract many readers to this volume ; yet unless those readers come prepared with a knowledge of what Herschell has achieved in science , and of his vast attainments , they will be seriously disappointed , and ask with some scorn , Is this your eminent man ? We' regret the republication of these essays , addresses , and poems , because , being for the most part altogether unworthy of republication , they will certainly lessen the reputation of their author . It is pleasant to think

    of the laborious student of science relaxing Ins mind by the composition of verses ; be these verses never so feeble they serve to keep hie soul young and his sympathies active . But however we may be pleased to see Herschell writing verses , it pains us to see b \ m publishing them—it pains us to see a man of his eminence falling into the error of boys and blockheads , and mistaking the difference between a private amusement und a public act . What would he think of Furaday ' s appearance as a concert-singer , because Fiiraday may happen to p lease himself and his family by occasionally singing to them ? What would he think of an Arago ' s appearance as an artist « t the Exhibition of pictures , because Arago might possess a certain knack of drawing , not good enough for url , but good enough for Albums ? Yet hia own case is precisely analogous . His vers . es are altogether commonplace ; fit for Albums but unfit for print . Take those two short poems as specimens : — TUB PXllTINO DOVJS . ' Impatient of constraint , around , my Ark , In short and lowly flight my strength I tried ,

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    Jtjke 27 , 1857 ] THE LEADER . 617

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 27, 1857, page 617, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2199/page/17/