nk about it,
he ceases to be an individual and becomes a tame and entirely convenient
member of society, fit for the Commission of the Peace or a berth at the
British Museum. After he has made 20 pounds by pen-slavery and saved
himself from serious poverty, he exclaims:

"Reader, amidst the difficulties and dangers of this life, should you
ever be tempted to despair, call to mind these latter chapters of the
life of Lavengro. There are few positions, however difficult, from which
dogged resolution and perseverance may not liberate you."

When he comes to discuss his own work he says that "it represents him,
however, as never forgetting that he is the son of a brave but poor
gentleman, and that if he is a hack author, he is likewise a scholar. It
shows him doing no dishonourable jobs, and proves that if he occasionally
associates with low characters, he does so chiefly to gratify the
curiosity of a scholar. In his conversations with the apple-woman of
London Bridge, the scholar is ever apparent, so again in his acquaintance
with the man of the table, for the book is no raker up of the uncleanness
of London, and if it gives what at first sight appears refuse, it
invariably shows that a pearl of some kind, generally a philological one,
is contained amongst it; it shows its hero always accompanied by his love
of independence, scorning in the greatest poverty to receive favours from
anybody, and describes him finally rescuing himself from peculiarly
miserable circumstances by writing a book, an original book, within a
week, even as Johnson is said to have written his 'Rasselas,' and
Beckford his 'Vathek,' and tells how, leaving London, he betakes himself
to the roads and fields.

"In the country it shows him leading a life of roving adventure, becoming
tinker, Gypsy, postillion, ostler; associating with various kinds of
people, chiefly of the lower classes, whose ways and habits are
described; but, though leading this erratic life, we gather from the book
that his habits are neither vulgar nor vicious, that he still follows to
a certain extent his favourite pursuits, hunting after strange
characters, or analysing strange words and names. At the conclusion of
Chapter XLVII., which terminates the first part of the history, it hints
that he is about to quit his native land on a grand philological
expedition.

"Those who read this book with attention--and the author begs to observe
that it would be of little utility to