k examples of
some of his finest book etchings. The pompous London merchant, the
frigid influence he exercises on those about him, the distrustful look
of the nurse as she brings baby Paul into his presence, the shrinking
form of little Florence as the frightened child cowers with folded hands
behind her repellent father's chair, are finely depicted in the etching
of _The Dombey Family_. In _Mrs. Dombey at Home_, the proud, haughty
beauty chafing under the consciousness that she has been sacrificed to
the wealth of the heartless merchant, takes no pains to veil the
contempt she feels for the admiring men who surround her. These men (by
the way) are scarcely men at all, they are all grossly exaggerated; but
"Phiz," like many artists of greater pretensions, has sacrificed
everything to his central figure, and the presence and bearing of the
disdainful beauty makes the _coup d'oeil_ delightful. _Abstraction and
Recognition_ is a wonderful etching; both man and horse are admirably
drawn, whilst the figures scowling out of the dark entry on the passing
and unconscious horseman require no reference to the letterpress. In his
etching of _The Dark Road_, Mr. Browne developed a style of etching of
which he afterwards frequently availed himself, and by which (as in
"Bleak House" and "Roland Cashel") he sometimes succeeded in producing
remarkable effects. It shows us a postilion driving a team of horses
over a dark and dreary road bordered on either hand by dismal moorland;
the streaks of the approaching dawn illuminate the edges of the
landscape; the single occupant of the berlin, unable to control his
agitation, stands upright, and gazes anxiously around him. So realistic
is the drawing, that as we look at the flying team we may almost hear
the jingle of the splinter-bars and harness as the horses rattle along
the dismal road. Cruikshank, to save his life, could draw neither a
horse, a tree, or a pretty woman; when he did so it was rather by
accident than by design. "Phiz" (with all his faults) could draw all
three, and impart to them a grace, a beauty, and a poetry peculiar to
himself. Look at that etching of _Carker in his Hour of Triumph_, where
Edith, after using the villain as a tool to revenge herself upon her
husband, turns upon her miserable dupe with all the force of her
superior intellect, and laughs in the face of the man she has so
egregiously befooled. This really is an admirable drawing; the anger and
humiliation on