low one another closely throughout all his
books.

Remembering these two things, his training and disposition, we can easily
foresee the kind of novel he must produce. He will be sentimental,
especially over children and outcasts; he will excuse the individual in
view of the faults of society; he will be dramatic or melodramatic; and his
sensibility will keep him always close to the public, studying its tastes
and playing with its smiles and tears. If pleasing the public be in itself
an art, then Dickens is one of our greatest artists. And it is well to
remember that in pleasing his public there was nothing of the hypocrite or
demagogue in his make-up. He was essentially a part of the great drifting
panoramic crowd that he loved. His sympathetic soul made all their joys and
griefs his own. He fought against injustice; he championed the weak against
the strong; he gave courage to the faint, and hope to the weary in heart;
and in the love which the public gave him in return he found his best
reward. Here is the secret of Dickens's unprecedented popular success, and
we may note here a very significant parallel with Shakespeare. The great
different in the genius and work of the two men does not change the fact
that each won success largely because he studied and pleased his public.

GENERAL PLAN OF DICKENS'S NOVELS. An interesting suggestion comes to us
from a study of the conditions which led to Dickens's first three novels.
_Pickwick_ was written, at the suggestion of an editor, for serial
publication. Each chapter was to be accompanied by a cartoon by Seymor (a
comic artist of the day), and the object was to amuse the public, and,
incidentally, to sell the paper. The result was a series of characters and
scenes and incidents which for vigor and boundless fun have never been
equaled in our language. Thereafter, no matter what he wrote, Dickins was
lbeled a humorist. Like a certain American writer of our own generation,
everything he said, whether for a feast or a funeral, was spposed to
contain a laugh. In a word, he was the victim of his own book. Dickens was
keen enough to understand his danger, and his next novel, _Oliver Twist_,
had the serious purpose of mitigating the evils under which the poor were
suffering. Its hero was a poor child, the unfortunate victim of society;
and, in order to draw attention to the real need, Dickens exaggerated the
woeful condition of the poor, and filled his pages with sentiment which