t, which describe in unrestrained
language the passion and adventures of a pair of very ardent lovers.
They show the prevailing inclination in narrative fiction toward
characters and scenes taken from actual life. But they have no interest
apart from the slender thread of the story itself. They contain no
studies of character, and no information of importance concerning
contemporary manners. Their heroes and heroines differ from each other
only in the intensity or the circumstances of their love. The best in
narrative interest, and the most attractive in tone, is the "Lucky
Mistake." It is without the grossness characteristic of Mrs. Behn's
works, and gives quite a pretty account of the loves of a young French
nobleman and an unusually modest young woman named Atlante. Mrs. Behn's
notion of love is contained in the opening lines of the "Fair Jilt,"
the most licentious of her tales. "As Love is the most noble and divine
Passion of the Soul, so it is that to which we may justly attribute all
the real Satisfactions of Life; and without it Man is Unfinished and
unhappy. There are a thousand Things to be said of the Advantages this
generous Passion brings to those whose Hearts are capable of receiving
its soft Impressions; for 'tis not Every one that can be sensible of
its tender Touches. How many Examples from History and Observation
could I give of its wondrous Power; nay, even to a degree of
Transmigration! How many Idiots has it made wise! How many Fools
eloquent! How many home-bred Squires accomplished! How many cowards
brave!" There is no doubt that Mrs. Behn was fully alive to the
strength of the passion she describes, but as Sir Richard Steele said,
she "understood the practic part of love better than the speculative."
In accordance with the views general amidst the society of her own
time, she represented love merely as a physical passion, and made the
interest of her stories depend on its gratification, and not on the
ennobling effects or subtle manifestations of which it is capable.

There is a great deal in that well-known anecdote of Sir Walter
Scott's, in which he relates that he "was acquainted with an old lady
of family, who assured him that, in her younger days, Mrs. Behn's
novels were as currently upon the toilette as the works of Miss
Edgeworth at present; and described with some humor her own surprise,
when the book falling into her hands after a long interval of years,
and when its contents were quite fo