reat
place--in the new light of being actually unknown to all the people in
the story, and only taking the colour of their fears and fancies and
opinions. So getting a new aspect, and being unlike itself. An _odd_
unlikeness of itself."

The subjects for stories are various, and some are striking. There was
one he clung to much, and thought of frequently as in a special degree
available for a series of papers in his periodical; but when he came to
close quarters with it the difficulties were found to be too great.
"English landscape. The beautiful prospect, trim fields, clipped hedges,
everything so neat and orderly--gardens, houses, roads. Where are the
people who do all this? There must be a great many of them, to do it.
Where are they all? And are _they_, too, so well kept and so fair to
see? Suppose the foregoing to be wrought out by an Englishman: say, from
China: who knows nothing about his native country." To which may be
added a fancy that savours of the same mood of discontent, political and
social. "How do I know that I, a man, am to learn from insects--unless
it is to learn how little my littlenesses are? All that botheration in
the hive about the queen bee, may be, in little, me and the court
circular."

A domestic story he had met with in the State Trials struck him greatly
by its capabilities, and I may preface it by mentioning another subject,
not entered in the Memoranda, which for a long time impressed him as
capable of attractive treatment. It was after reading one of the
witch-trials that this occurred to him; and the heroine was to be a girl
who for a special purpose had taken a witch's disguise, and whose trick
was not discovered until she was actually at the stake. Here is the
State Trials story as told by Dickens. "There is a case in the State
Trials, where a certain officer made love to a (supposed) miser's
daughter, and ultimately induced her to give her father slow poison,
while nursing him in sickness. Her father discovered it, told her so,
forgave her, and said 'Be patient my dear--I shall not live long, even
if I recover: and then you shall have all my wealth.' Though penitent
then, she afterwards poisoned him again (under the same influence), and
successfully. Whereupon it appeared that the old man had no money at
all, and had lived on a small annuity which died with him, though always
feigning to be rich. He had loved this daughter with great affection."

A theme touching closely on gro