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missionaries. In its celebration of successful crime, and its
representation under a heroic aspect of villains and blacklegs, no
species of fiction is more false to nature or more injurious to
youthful readers.

To such writers as George A. Lawrence and "Ouida" the world is indebted
for the "Muscular Novel," which combines all the worst elements of both
fashionable and criminal narrative. In "Guy Livingstone," "Strathmore,"
and a hundred similar fictions, the reader is introduced to men of
extraordinary physical development, whose strength is proof against
the wildest dissipation; to women of extraordinary beauty, whose charms
are enhanced in proportion to their coarseness and lack of modesty.
Jack Sheppard, reposing on a velvet couch, smoking a perfumed
cigarette, and worshipped by two or three ornaments of the demi-monde,
is the type most admired by the muscular novelist. Lawrence and "Ouida"
have brought to their work a literary power which has given them
considerable notoriety; and has placed them at the head of their
particular school; but it is a school whose distinctive characteristics
consist in extravagance, unhealthiness of tone, and falseness to
nature.

English military life has been ably described by such writers as E.
Napier, G.R. Gleig, W.H. Maxwell, and James Grant. But as a maritime
nation, England has been much more prolific of naval novelists. At the
head of these stands Captain Marryat, who has celebrated the pleasures
and described the incidents of sea-faring life in about thirty jovial,
dashing books. Among the great number of odd and entertaining
characters sketched by his hand, "Peter Simple" and "Midshipman Easy"
are perhaps the most interesting. Marryat's narratives are not
carefully constructed, but flow on gracefully and easily, enlivened by
an inexhaustible fund of humor, and enriched by an endless succession
of bright or exciting scenes. The names of Captain Glassock, Howard,
Trelawney, Captain Chamier, Michael Scott, and the author of the "Wreck
of the Grosvenor," are among those most prominently associated with the
marine novel. These writers have not only dealt with the adventures of
a sailor's life and the peculiarities of a sailor's character, but have
studied the influence of the sea on the human mind.

Through the great interest felt by Englishmen in the manners and
customs of Eastern nations, Oriental novels have become a recognized
department of English fiction. In the eighte