the whole
_sustaining_ cause--of the three-volume system itself. Nor was the
connection between nature of form and system of distribution limited to
England: for the single-volume novel, though older in France than with
us, is not so very old.

But a very considerable proportion of these famous books made
appearances previous to that in three volumes, and not distantly
connected with their popularity. For the most part these previous
appearances were either in magazines or periodicals of one kind and
another, or else in "parts."

Neither process was exactly new, though both were largely affected
by changed conditions of general literature and life. The
magazine-appearance traces itself, by almost insensible gradations, to
the original periodical-essay of the Steele-Addison type--the small
individual bulk of which necessitated division of whatsoever was not
itself on a very small scale. If you run down the "Contents" of the
_British Essayists_ you will constantly find "Continuation of the story
of Alonso and Imoinda" and the like. But when, in the early years of the
nineteenth century, the system of newspapers and periodicals branched
out into endless development, coincidently with the increase of demand
and supply in regard to the novel, it was inevitable that this latter
should be drawn upon to supply at once the standing dishes and the
relishes of the entertainment. _Blackwood_ and the _London_, the first
fruits of the new kind, did not at once take to the novel by
instalments: and the _London_ had no time to do so. But _Blackwood_
soon became celebrated--a reputation which it has never lost--for the
excellence of its short stories, and by degrees took to long ones; while
its followers--_Fraser, Bentley's Miscellany, The Dublin University
Magazine_, the _New Monthly_, and others--almost from the first bated
their hooks with this new _appat_. A very large proportion of the work
of the novelists mentioned in the last chapter, as well as of Lever,
appeared in one or other of these. _Fraser_ in particular was
Thackeray's chief refuge in the Days of Ignorance of the public as to
his real powers and merits, while, just as he was going off, the very
different work of Kingsley came on there. And the tradition, as is well
known, has never been broken. The particular magazines may have died in
some cases: but the magazine-appearance of novels is nearly as vivacious
as ever.

Publication in parts is nearly as old, but has a