Bishop of Melbourne), _The Power of Love_ (an extravaganza),
_Dore and Modern Art_ (a review), _Cannabis Indica_ (a psychological
experiment). Almost the whole of Clarke's life may be said to have been
devoted to the supply of some temporary demand of the periodical press
or the stage. Even the two novels which represent his only sustained
work were written for serial issue in Melbourne magazines.

It does not appear in either case that he wrote with any special view
to establish a literary reputation; indeed, it would seem that the story
of convict life might not have been completed but for the strenuous
importunity of the firm of publishers with whom he had contracted to
write it.

Journalism, the early occupation of so many eminent men of letters, has
usually been abandoned as soon as the young writer has once shown
exceptional ability as a novelist. This rule was not followed by Clarke.
As the leader in his day of the journalistic class, who, as the late Mr.
Francis Adams has said with substantial truth, still 'stand almost
entirely for the conscious literary culture of the whole Antipodean
community,' he held a position which would have unfavourably affected
the literary tone and ambition of a still more energetic and original
writer.

He had no predecessors in the special work he elected to do; he had to
establish his own standard of achievement; and he was without the
constant stimulus which intercourse with literary society, such as that
of London, affords. The demands of the newspapers were then, as now,
more for purely ephemeral criticism or narrative than for matter worthy
to rank as permanent literature.

An alert, pithy style and a distinct gift of satirical humour such as
Clarke had, and developed by a wide range of reading, were just the
qualities which are always in request on the keen, aggressive daily
press of Australia. One can easily imagine the flattering demands made
upon the young author's powers by the men who were his personal friends
as well as employers.

Whenever he was deficient in taste of expression, or in urbanity of
criticism (as in his treatment of the Jews), he showed the effects
partly of impetuous haste, and partly of his remoteness from those
centres of literary opinion which always beneficially influence a young
writer, be he ever so original or naturally artistic. It has been
doubted whether Clarke was ever fully convinced of his own powers; but
however feasibly this may ha