in no single
point unnatural one, is victoriously carried out. Her father, in spite
of (nay, perhaps, including) his comparative collapse when he is called
upon, not as before to talk but to act, in the business of Lydia's
flight, is a masterpiece. Mr. Collins is, once more by common consent of
the competent, unsurpassed, if not peerless: those who think him
unnatural simply do not know nature. Shakespeare and Fielding were the
only predecessors who could properly serve as sponsors to "this young
lady" (as Scott delightfully calls her) on her introduction among the
immortals on the strength of this character alone. Lady Catherine is not
much the inferior (it would have been pleasing to tell her so) of her
_protege_ and chaplain. Of almost all the characters, and of quite the
whole book, it is scarcely extravagant to say that it could not have
been better on its own scale and scheme--that it is difficult to
conceive any scheme and scale on which it could have been better. And,
yet once more, there is nothing out of the way in it--the only thing not
of absolutely everyday occurrence, the elopement of Lydia, happens on
so many days still, with slight variations, that it can hardly be called
a licence.

The same qualities appear throughout the other books, whether in more or
less quintessence and with less or more alloy is a question rather of
individual taste than for general or final critical decision. _Sense and
Sensibility_, the first actually to appear (1811), is believed to have
been written about the same time as _Pride and Prejudice_, which
appeared two years later, and _Northanger Abbey_, which did not see the
light till its author was dead. It is the weakest of the three--perhaps
it is the weakest of all: but the weakness is due rather to an error of
judgment than to a lack of power. Like _Northanger Abbey_ it has a
certain dependence on something else: the extravagances of Marianne
satirise the Sensibility-novel just as those of Catherine do the
Terror-story of the immediate past. But it is on a much larger scale:
and things of the kind are better in miniature. Moreover, the author's
sense of creative faculty made her try to throw up and contrast her
heroine with other characters, in a way which she had not attempted in
_Northanger Abbey_: and good as these are in themselves, they make a
less perfect whole. Indeed, in the order of thought, _Sense and
Sensibility_ is the "youngest" of the novels--the least self-cr