annot be placed below Henry Esmond. As a study of
passions and principles that do not change with civilizations, it is
even more excellent. Griffith Gaunt himself is the most perfect figure
in the book, because the plot does not at any period interfere with his
growth. We start with a knowledge of the frankness and generosity native
to a somewhat coarse texture of mind, and we readily perceive why a
nature so prone to love and wrath should fall a helpless prey to
jealousy, which is a thing altogether different from the suspicion of
ungenerous spirits. It is jealousy which drives Griffith to deceive
Mercy Vint, for even his desolation and his need of her consoling care
cannot bring him to it, and it is only when his triumphing rival appears
that this frank and kindly soul consents to enact a cruel lie. The crime
committed, there is no longer virtue or courage in the man, and we see
without surprise his cowardly reluctance to do the one brave and noble
thing possible to him, lest he be arrested for bigamy. The letter, so
weak and so boisterous, which he gives Mercy Vint to prove him alive
before the court, is in keeping with the development of his character;
and it is not unnatural that he should think the literal gift of his
blood to his wife a sort of compensation and penance for his sins
against her. The wonder is that the author should fall into the same
error, as he seems to do.

The character of Kate Gaunt is treated in the _denouement_ with a
violence which almost destroys its identity, but throughout the whole
previous progress of the story it is a most artistic and consistent
creation. From the beautiful girl, so virginal and dreamy and insecure
of her destiny in the world, with her high aspirations and her high
temper, there is a certain lapse to the handsome matron united with a
man beneath her in mind and spirit, and assured of the commonplace fact
that in her love and duty to him is her happiness; but as Love must
often mate men and women unequally, it is perfectly natural that Love in
her case should strive to keep his eyes shut when no longer blind. Great
exigencies afterwards develop her character, and it gains in dignity and
beauty from her misfortunes, and we do not again think compassionately
of her till she is reunited with Griffith. In spite of all her faults,
she is wonderfully charming. The reader himself falls in love with her,
and perhaps a subtile sense of jealousy and personal loss mingles with