ing
critics. Even these, however, must object to his disposition to cluck or
crow, in a manner altogether unseemly, whenever he hits upon a thought
of more than ordinary delicacy or depth.

It is but just to say, in palliation of this fault, that Mr. Reade's
insolent tone is not peculiar to him. It characterizes almost every
prominent person who has attempted to mould the opinions of the age. We
find it in Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Kingsley, as well as in Reade.
Modesty is not the characteristic of the genius of the nineteenth
century; and the last thing we look for in any powerful work of the
present day is toleration for other minds and opposing opinions.
Each capable person who puts in his thumb and pulls out a plum draws
instantly the same inference which occurred to the first explorer of
the Christmas-pie. Charles Reade has no reservation at all, and boldly
echoes Master Horner's sage conclusion.

"The Cloister and the Hearth," in spite of its faults, is really a great
book. It is a positive contribution to history as well as to romance. It
would be vain to point to any other volume which could convey to common
minds so clear and accurate a conception of European life in the
fifteenth century as this. The author has deeply studied the annals,
memoirs, and histories which record the peculiarities of that life, and
he has carried into the study a knowledge of those powers and passions
of human nature which are the same in every age. The result is a
"romance of history" which contains more essential truth than the most
labored histories; for the writer is a man who has both the heart to
feel and the imagination to conceive the realities of the time about
which he writes.

The characterization of the book is original, various, and powerful.
It ranges from the lowest hind to the most exquisite representative
of female tenderness and purity. The scenes of passion show a clear
conception of and a strong hold upon the emotional elements of
character, and a capacity to exhibit their most terrible workings
in language which seems identical with the feelings it so burningly
expresses. In vigor and vividness of description and narration the novel
excels any of Reade's previous books. The plot is about the same as that
of "The Good Fight," though the _denouement_ is different. "The Cloister
and the Hearth," indeed, incorporates "The Good Fight" in its pages, but
the latter forms not more than a fourth of the extended wo