dden danger which it was her purpose to excite. While the
reader follows such portions of her writings, he is carried by the
force and picturesqueness of Mrs. Radcliffe's language into a condition
of sympathy with the fears of the fictitious personage. But the moment
that the scene of horror is past, that the hidden danger is revealed,
that, it turns out to be no ghost but only a Count Morano, all Mrs.
Radcliffe's power is required to prevent an anti-climax. This weakness
is very different from that of Walpole or Reeve. They failed to excite
the feeling of superstitious fear. Mrs. Radcliffe excited it, but she
destroyed its effect by revealing the inadequacy of its cause. The
works of Walpole, Clara Reeve, and particularly of Mrs. Radcliffe,
contain very decided merits. They made a school which has found many
admirers and has given a vast deal of pleasure. But the school was
founded on wrong principles and could not endure. It is impossible for
the mind to enjoy the supernatural while it is chained down to
every-day life by realistic descriptions of scenes and persons. And it
is equally impossible to permanently please by fear-inspiring
narratives, when the reader is aware that all the while there is no
sufficient cause for the hero's terror.

But what Mrs. Radcliffe attempted, she carried out with a very great
skill. She placed the scenes of her narratives in Sicily, in Italy, or
the south of France, and made good use of the warm natures and vivid
imaginations which are born of southern climates. Every aid which an
effective _mise en scene_ could supply to her supernatural effects was
most skilfully brought into play. Lonely castles, secret passages,
gloomy churches, and monkish superstitions,--all were adapted to the
tale of unknown dangers and fearful predicaments which Mrs. Radcliffe
had to tell. She kept up with remarkable strength a supernatural tone
which insensibly aids the imagination. In her descriptions of scenery,
she chose nature in its most awe-inspiring forms, and instilled into
the reader's mind the same sense of the insignificance of man, under
the influence of which her heroes and heroines so continually remain.
We are reminded of Buckle's description of the effect of nature upon
human imagination and credulity when we notice the striking manner in
which Mrs. Radcliffe moulded the surroundings of her heroes and
heroines, and made their minds susceptible to superstitious terror.

From Beaujeu the r