more than the servile shadow
of Law. I impress not here, as in Paul Clifford, a material moral to
work its effect on the Journals, at the Hastings, through Constituents,
and on Legislation;--I direct myself to a channel less active, more
tardy, but as sure--to the Conscience--that reigns elder and superior to
all Law, in men's hearts and souls;--I utter boldly and loudly a truth,
if not all untold, murmured feebly and falteringly before, sooner or
later it will find its way into the judgment and the conduct, and shape
out a tribunal which requires not robe or ermine.

Secondly--In this work I have sought to lift the mask from the timid
selfishness which too often with us bears the name of Respectability.
Purposely avoiding all attraction that may savour of extravagance,
patiently subduing every tone and every hue to the aspect of those whom
we meet daily in our thoroughfares, I have shown in Robert Beaufort
the man of decorous phrase and bloodless action--the systematic
self-server--in whom the world forgive the lack of all that is generous,
warm, and noble, in order to respect the passive acquiescence in
methodical conventions and hollow forms. And how common such men are
with us in this century, and how inviting and how necessary their
delineation, may be seen in this,--that the popular and pre-eminent
Observer of the age in which we live has since placed their prototype in
vigorous colours upon imperishable canvas.--[Need I say that I allude to
the Pecksniff of Mr. Dickens?]

There is yet another object with which I have identified my tale. I
trust that I am not insensible to such advantages as arise from
the diffusion of education really sound, and knowledge really
available;--for these, as the right of my countrymen, I have contended
always. But of late years there has been danger that what ought to be an
important truth may be perverted into a pestilent fallacy. Whether for
rich or for poor, disappointment must ever await the endeavour to give
knowledge without labour, and experience without trial. Cheap literature
and popular treatises do not in themselves suffice to fit the nerves
of man for the strife below, and lift his aspirations, in healthful
confidence above. He who seeks to divorce toil from knowledge deprives
knowledge of its most valuable property.--the strengthening of the
mind by exercise. We learn what really braces and elevates us only in
proportion to the effort it costs us. Nor is it in Books alo