ims to be constructed loosely. In
an Odyssey the road taken by the wanderer is all the nexus required;
and the continuity of his presence (if the author know his business)
is warrant enough for the continuity of our interest in his
adventures. That the history of Gil Blas of Santillane consists
chiefly of episodes is not a serious criticism upon Lesage's novel.

(2.) In _Catriona_ more than a few of the characters are suffered to
drop out of sight just as we have begun to take an interest in them.
There is Mr. Rankeillor, for instance, whose company in the concluding
chapter of _Kidnapped_ was too good to be spared very easily; and
there is Lady Allardyce--a wonderfully clever portrait; and Captain
Hoseason--we tread for a moment on the verge of re-acquaintance, but
are disappointed; and Balfour of Pilrig; and at the end of Part I.
away into darkness goes the Lord Advocate Preston-grange, with his
charming womenkind.

Well, if this be an objection to the tale, it is one urged pretty
often against life itself--that we scarce see enough of the men and
women we like. And here again that which may be a fault in _Catriona_
is no fault at all in _The Memoirs of David Balfour_. Though novelists
may profess in everything they write to hold a mirror up to life, the
reflection must needs be more artificial in a small book than in a
large. In the one, for very clearness, they must isolate a few human
beings and cut off the currents (so to speak) bearing upon them from
the outside world: in the other, with a larger canvas they are able
to deal with life more frankly. Were the Odyssey cut down to one
episode--say that of Nausicaea--we must round it off and have everyone
on the stage and provided with his just portion of good and evil
before we ring the curtain down. As it is, Nausicaea goes her way. And
as it is, Barbara Grant must go her way at the end of Chapter XX.; and
the pang we feel at parting with her is anything rather than a
reproach against the author.

(3.) It is very certain, as the book stands, that the reader must
experience some shock of disappointment when, after 200 pages of the
most heroical endeavoring, David fails in the end to save James
Stewart of the Glens. Were the book concerned wholly with James
Stewart's fate, the cheat would be intolerable: and as a great deal
more than half of _Catriona_ points and trembles towards his fate like
a magnetic needle, the cheat is pretty bad if we take _Catriona_
alone.