ome cases more than one or
two--already exist, for those who read English only, of nearly the whole
of Balzac, of all Victor Hugo's novels, of a great many of Dumas's, and
of others almost innumerable.

[4] The chief exceptions are Dumas _fils_, the earliest, and Maupassant,
the greatest except Flaubert and far more voluminous than Flaubert
himself.

[5] The most unexpected chorus of approval with which Volume I. was
received by reviewers, and which makes me think, in regard to this, of
that unpleasant song of the Koreish "After Bedr, Ohod," leaves little
necessity for defending points attacked. I have made a few addenda and
corrigenda to Volume I. to cover exceptions, and the "Interchapter" or
its equivalent should contain something on one larger matter--the small
account taken here of French _criticism_ of the novel.

[6] I wonder whether he was right, or whether the late Edward Caird was
when he said, "I don't think I ever had a pupil [and he was among the
first inter-collegiate-lecturers] with more of the philosophical _ethos_
than you have. But you're too fond of getting into logical coaches and
letting yourself be carried away in them." I think this was provoked by
a very undergraduate essay arguing that Truth, as actually realised, was
uninteresting, while the possible forms of Falsehood, as conceivably
realisable in other circumstances, were of the highest interest.

[7] I have to give, not only my usual thanks to Professors Elton, Ker,
and Gregory Smith for reading my proofs, and making most valuable
suggestions, but a special acknowledgment to Professor Ker, at whose
request Miss Elsie Hitchcock most kindly looked up for me, at the
British Museum, the exact title of that striking novel of M. H. Cochin
(_v. inf._ p. 554 _note_). I have, in the proper places, already thanked
the authorities of the _Reviews_ above mentioned; but I should like also
to recognise here the liberality of Messrs. Rivington in putting the
contents of my _Essays on French Novelists_ entirely at my disposal. And
I am under another special obligation to Dr. Hagbert Wright for giving
me, of his own motion, knowledge and reading of the fresh batch of
seventeenth-century novels noticed below (pp. xiv-xvi).

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA FOR VOL. I

P. 13.--"The drawback of explanations is that they almost always require
to be explained." Somebody, or several somebodies, must have said this;
and many more people than have ever said it--