dent
of the temporary effect they may produce, not only as possessing a sort
of historical interest from the view they afford of a remarkable period,
but as nearly perfect models of composition in their kind. It is one of
which we can hardly be said to have a specimen in our literature. We
have indeed two or three names for prose works of fiction, but the chief
difference between them is one of quantity. The novel is only a longer
tale, or the tale a shorter novel. Even in Spanish or Italian literature
it would not be easy to find an exact parallel; for the _novelas_ and
_novelle_ are in general only circumstantial anecdotes. The name
however adopted from them by Tieck has been retained, though as applied
to a work of less than three volumes it has now become obsolete. The
peculiarity of these Novels is the dramatic concentration, the
compression of all the elements which compose them within the smallest
possible compass, within which they can fully expand and display
themselves. It is the most common fault even of the ablest writers to
exceed or fall short of that compass, and both faults are often
committed in the same work; some of the component parts are left
undeveloped, others dilated to an arbitrary extent. The exact medium is
the highest mystery, and its attainment the greatest triumph of art. It
is this which, among the many admirable things in the present volume,
is perhaps most worthy of admiration. The variety and originality of
the characters here introduced would under any circumstances be
remarkable, but it excites peculiar surprize and delight, that in so
small a space they find room to act so freely and to shew themselves so
fully. There are enough of them to furnish richly as many novels of the
modern size, yet, had the Author indulged his fancy in multiplying
situations and weaving new intrigues for never so many volumes, they
could not have stood before us more clearly and distinctly, with more
of life and nature. They have been scarcely an hour in our company
before they become old acquaintance; we should know no more of them if
we were to hear the whole history of their lives.

But to point out the Author's merits was not the object of this
Preface, which has already grown to what may appear an inordinate
length. The Translator wishes he could have believed it altogether
superfluous, and will not add to it anything which he knows to be so.
Indeed he thinks himself fortunate in not being obliged to