rty, and have a large
and interesting family. If the reader will take the fate of Griffith
Gaunt and contrast it with that of Tito Melema, in "Romola," he shall
see all the difference that passes between an artificial and an artistic
solution of a moral problem.

Defective art is noticeable in the minor as well as the principal
features of the _denouement_ of Griffith Gaunt. There is the case of the
unhappy little baby of Mercy. It is plain that the infant is a
stumbling-block in its mother's path to Neville Cross; but we have
scarcely begun to lament its presence, when it is swiftly put to death
by a special despatch from the obliging destiny of the _denouement_. The
event is a coincidence, to say the least, and is scarcely less an
operation than the transfusion of blood by which Griffith Gaunt and his
wife are preserved to a long life of happiness. But this part of the
work is full of wonders. The cruel enchantments are all dissolved by
more potent preternatural agencies, and a superhuman prosperity dwells
alike with the just and the unjust,--Mrs. Ryder excepted, who will
probably go to the Devil as some slight compensation for the loss of
Griffith Gaunt.

But if the conclusion of the fiction is weak, how great it is in every
other part! The management of the plot was so masterly, that the story
proceeded without a pause or an improbability until the long fast of a
month falling between the feasts of its publication became almost
insupportable. It was a plot that grew naturally out of the characters,
for humanity is prolific of events, and these characters are all human
beings. They are not in the least anachronistic. They act and speak a
great deal in the coarse fashion of the good old times. Griffith Gaunt
is half tipsy when Kate plights her troth to him; and he is drunk upon
an occasion not less solemn and interesting. They are of an age that was
very gallant and brutal, that wore gold-lace upon its coat, and ever so
much profanity upon its speech; and Mr. Reade has treated them with
undeniable frankness and sincerity. Mercy Vint alone seems to belong to
a better time; but then goodness and purity are the contemporaries of
every generation, and, besides, Mercy Vint's puritan character is an
exceptional phase of the life of the time. It is admirable to see in
this fiction, as we often see in the world, how wise and refined
religion makes an ignorant and lowly-bred person. As a retrospective
study, Griffith Gaunt c