termined goodness, of elevation of character, of strength and wisdom,
so that in his accustomed walk he might have met Sir Percivale or Sir
Launfal. Good, and given over to God, he was found out by love; and
love did with him as with us all--love glorified him. In his clean
life is something sturdy you might lean on, as on a staff, and have no
fear. So is Enoch Arden made hero by love. In love, remembrance, and
absence of self, he is manhood. We have all wept with Arden, finding
our faces wet with tears, though not knowing we wept. His story never
grows trite. Each time we read, new light breaks from this character
as if it were a sun. The sight of him when he, like a poor thief,
looking in at the window,

"Because things seen are mightier than things heard,
Stagger'd and shook, holding the branch, and feared
To send abroad a shrill and terrible cry
Which in one moment, like the blast of doom,
Would shatter all the happiness of the hearth.

And feeling all along the garden wall,
Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found,
Crept to the gate, and open'd it and closed
As lightly as a sick man's chamber door
Behind him, and came out upon the waste;"

and when,

"Falling prone, he dug
His fingers into the wet earth, and pray'd,--"

the sight of him is as unforgettable as a man's first look upon the
woman he loves. The poet was right. Arden was a "strong, heroic
soul," and when he woke, arose, and cried, "A sail! a sail!" it was
God's nobleman who sighted it.

"Daniel Deronda" and "John Halifax, Gentleman," may wisely be classed
together as attempts of competent artists to sketch a gentleman.
Whether they have failed in the attempt I would not make bold to say,
but for some reason the characters impress me as being scarcely
adequate. Both faces are open, and lit as by a lamp of truth; their
lives are sweet as meadows scented with new-mown hay; we become sworn
friends to both without our willing it; they have nothing to take back,
because words and deeds are faithful to their best manhood; they are
strong, and women lean on them, which, aside from God's confidence, is
the highest compliment ever paid a man. Deronda is a man among
aristocrats, Halifax a man among plebeians and commercial relations;
but manhood is the same quality wherever found; for God has made all
soils salubrious for such growth. But these do not compel, though they
do charm us. Bayard, in "A Singular