act
produces a definite moral effect on the individual; and character is the
added sum of all, the acts of a man's; life,--just as the weight of a body
is the sum of the weights of many different atoms which constitute it. The
matter of rewards and punishments, therefore, needs no final judge or
judgment, since these things take care of themselves automatically in a
world of inviolable moral law.

Perhaps one thing more should be added to the general characteristics of
George Eliot's novels,--they are all rather depressing. The gladsomeness of
life, the sunshine of smiles and laughter, is denied her. It is said that
once, when her husband remarked that her novels were all essentially sad,
she wept, and answered that she must describe life as she had found it.

WHAT TO READ. George Eliot's first stories are in some respects her best,
though her literary power increases during her second period, culminating
in _Silas Marner_, and her psychological analysis is more evident in
_Daniel Deronda_. On the whole, it is an excellent way to begin with the
freshness and inspiration of the _Scenes of Clerical Life_ and read her
books in the order in which they were written. In the first group of novels
_Adam Bede_ is the most natural, and probably interests more readers than
all the others combined. _The Mill on the Floss_ has a larger personal
interest, because it reflects much of George Eliot's history and the scenes
and the friends of her early life. The lack of proportion in this story,
which gives rather too much space to the girl-and-boy experiences, is
naturally explained by the tendency in every man and woman to linger over
early memories.

_Silas Marner_ is artistically the most perfect of George Eliot's novels,
and we venture to analyze it as typical of her ideals and methods. We note
first the style, which is heavy and a little self-conscious, lacking the
vigor and picturesqueness of Dickens, and the grace and naturalness of
Thackeray. The characters are the common people of the Midlands, the hero
being a linen weaver, a lonely outcast who hoards and gloats over his
hard-earned money, is robbed, thrown into utter despair, and brought back
to life and happiness by the coming of an abandoned child to his fire. In
the development of her story the author shows herself, first, a realist, by
the naturalness of her characters and the minute accuracy with which she
reproduces their ways and even the accents of their speech; sec