triotism, deep, solemn, mystic, even superstitious, religious feeling, large intellect, resolute courage, splendid coolness, innate capabilities for leadership, together with, on the other hand, selfish ambition, pride, and love of display. The plot must, in the main, follow the recorded history of the time, but is given more general interest by the introduction of motives of religion, friendship, love, hatred and revenge as they influence character. The incidents are often breathless in their interest, are romantic and dramatic, sometimes theatrical and unnatural. Everywhere are to be traced results of the author's conception of a novel as an extended drama, and of his technical training as a dramatist. The construction of the book is careful in the extreme. Some of the strongest elements of the novel appear in the descriptions, particularly those of gorgeous and elaborate functions. Natural scenery as it impressed the characters is painted with extreme vividness; many of the chapters were written in the midst of the scenes they describe and conserve the local coloring; the pictures of the plague of 1348 in Florence are awful in their power. The style is usually fine, smooth, graceful, liquid, elegant. It is frequently loose, diffuse, elaborate, flowery, equivocal and involved. Always self-conscious, Lytton is sometimes dogmatic and dictatorial. Often in our reading we forget the style, the method of the book, forget ourselves; it is impossible to criticise many of the passages at a first reading, they possess one so strongly. The book is a powerful stimulus.

SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS AND CLASS.

1. In what ways does 'Rienzi' show the author's literary purposes and ideals?

2. Does the book at all evidence Lytton's personality?

3. Show the influence of the author's dramatic training and ability upon the book.

4. Criticise the poetry introduced here and there in 'Rienzi.'

5. How may Bulwer-Lytton's style he characterized? Compare it with

Scott's.

6. What advantage can be derived from reading such a book as 'Rienzi?' 7. Compare Lytton's picture of Rienzi and his times with that given by Gibbon in the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' (Vol. vi), or that in Bryce's 'Holy Roman Empire.'

8. Compare Lytton's conception of the character of Rienzi with that given in Wagner's music-drama, or in Miss Mitford's tradegy.

9. How may Lytton's life and work be compared with that of Disraeli; of Byron?

10. How may Lytton's twenty-four novels be arranged under his own headings of 'Imaginative,' 'Familiar,' 'Social?'

REFERENCES.

'Rienzi,' which is recommended for reading, published in Lupton's 'Elite Series' (paper), can be bought for ten cents; in Burt's 'Home Library' (cloth) for forty-five cents. The standard editions of Bulwer Lytton's novels are those published by Wm. Blackwood & Sons, London and Edinburgh.

"The Life, Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, by his son." London, 1883. (Incomplete, 2 vols. only, 18031832), is the beginning of an exhaustive biography. There is no satisfactory biography of Bulwer-Lytton which is brief and accessible. Consult the accounts in the biographical dictionaries and encyclopæ dias. That by Leslie Stephen, in the Dictionary of National (English) Biography, Vol. xxxiv, is the best. Descriptions of Lytton are given in Friswell's 'Modern Men of Letters,' Mason's 'Personal Traits of British Authors,' and Canon Farrar's 'Men I Have Met.'

LECTURE III.

William Makepeace Thackeray.

(b. 1811; Vanity Fair' 1847; d. 1863.)

"Ah, ye knights of the pen ! may honour be your shield, and truth tip your lances! Be gentle to all good people. Be modest to women. Be tender to children. And as for the Ogre Humbug, out sword and have at him."

-Thackeray's Roundabout Paper on 'Ogres."

Thackeray was born in India, was trained in school and college in England, studied art in Germany and France, and by the time he was twenty knew as much of commercial, military, academic, and artistic life as do many at twice

his age. At twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune; at twenty-three he lost it, and needed all his stores of information and his skill to gain a livelihood. From illustration he turned to writing for Punch, forming a connection with that periodical which continued for the greater part of his life. He was becoming generally known in 1837, the year of his marriage, but his family happiness was soon shattered by his wife's mental illness making it necessary for her to live in perfect seclusion. In 1847 ' Vanity Fair' made him famous; he remained before the public as an essayist, a novelist, a lecturer and an editor until his death, the day before Christmas, 1863. His striking and charming individuality gained for him hosts of the warmest personal friends at home, and in America where he came in 1852 and 1855.

It is to be remembered that the bulk of Thackeray's literary work was independent of his novels, and that he wrote the latter mainly as vehicles for his comments upon life. His stories have not orderly beginnings and conclusions, but open and close in the midst of things just as sections of real life, to which they are also like in the ordinary and every-day character of the incidents which compose them. The purpose explains and excuses, if excuse be necessary, the countless digressions, discussions, and comments upon a hundred topics suggested by the thought of the book. Thackeray delighted to chat with his readers as though he enjoyed his writing immensely, as indeed he did. Often humorous, he frequently wrote exactly the thing he did not mean and allowed his true meaning to be guessed. He was, and still is, often misunderstood,-never more greatly than by those who term him a cynic. He was a satirist, unscathing in his denouncement of the hypocritical vices which seemed to him more evil than open and deliberate wrong. He was balanced in his warfare, attacking the follies with lighter but still formidable weapons. He served humanity not only

in condemning directly, and more often indirectly, the bad, but in praising, after the same method, the good; cultivating sympathy as well as sarcasm. His heart was

tender at the thought of love, devotion, kindness, selfsacrifice, and kindled into enthusiasm at bravery, nobility and honor. His nature was as soft and kindly as his intellect was strong and vigorous. To read Thackeray is to wish to have known him personally. His personality and purpose impress one so strongly that only at second thought is it possible to study his art and his skill, no less worthy of our attention. We occasionally see with pleased surprise people who remind us of characters from Dickens, Thackeray's personages are so human that the necessity for such a comparison never arises. By no means characters of romance, they are seldom handsome in person or ideal in character. They are entirely human combinations of good and evil. If Becky is precocious, attractive, bright, clever and good humored, she is also selfish, mercenary, unprincipled and false. If Amelia is true, honest, tender and loving, she is also jealous, somewhat stupid, and rather silly. The characters are not expressions of the manifold sides of Thackeray's own nature; they do not embody characteristics which are universally found in mankind; they are newly created individuals who live and move as naturally and as surely as living creatures. Genius and art can go no higher.

SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS AND CLASS.

1. What may be said of Thackeray's literary style? His vocabulary? 2. Discuss the headings of chapters and names of characters in 'Vanity Fair.'

3. What are the sources of Thackeray's humor?

4. What are the objects and methods of Thackeray's satire?

5. Does 'Vanity Fair' show traces of the author's training as an artist? 6. Is the novel into which an author puts most autobiography usually his greatest work?

7. What increased value does Thackeray gain by using his characters in more than one book?

8. How is Thackeray's social attitude different from that of Scott and

Bulwer-Lytton?

9. How are his religious ideas shown by his books?

10. How far is it wise for an author to approach truth in dealing with evil in his writing?

REFERENCES.

Lupton's' Elite' Series includes an edition (paper) of 'Vanity Fair,' the book recommended for reading, which sells for ten cents. A good cloth-bound edition in Burt's' Home Library' costs forty-five cents. Standard editions of Thackeray's writings are published by Smith, Elder & Co., London. The biographical edition of Thackeray's works now being published by Harper & Brothers contain admirable biographical introductions by Mrs. Ritchie, Thackeray's daughter. Anthony Trollope's account of Thackeray in 'English Men of Letters' Series (Harpers. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 25 cents), should be read as giving the best sketch of the man. Personal sketches of Thackeray have been given by Mrs. Ritchie, his daughter, and by his friends, John Brown, James T. Fields and Eyre Crowe. 'A Collection of Letters of Thackeray, 1847-1855,' was published by the Scribners in 1890.

LECTURE IV.

Charles John Huffham Dickens.

(b. 1812; 'David Copperfield,' 1850; d. 1870.)

"Nature made him the mouthpiece of his time, in all that relates to simple emotions and homely thought. Who can more rightly be called an artist than he who gave form and substance to the ideal of goodness and purity, of honour, justice, mercy, whereby the dim multitudes falteringly seek to direct their steps? This was his task in life, to embody the better dreams of ordinary men; to fix them on bright realities for weary eyes to look upon."

George Gissing's 'Charles Dickens.'

There is a tribute to the author's popularity in the fact that his very name, through much handling, has become abbreviated from the full to the familiar form, 'Charles Dickens.' The titles of most of his books have had a similar experience. The world first learned to know