nlists the sympathies of the reader very strongly with
the trials of the manufacturing classes. Not of more literary
excellence, but dealing with a subject of far wider interest than that
of "Mary Barton," was the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of Mrs. Stowe. This work
is a wonderful example of the capacities of fiction for moving the
public mind. Before its publication, great numbers of ordinarily humane
people had a general, ill defined horror of slavery. It was felt to be
a barbarous institution, a blot on American civilization. But to most
people it was a distant abuse, with which they seldom or never came in
contact, and of which they only heard the evil effects in a general
way. But with the publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" the whole Northern
public were brought face to face with the question of slavery. Here
were individuals, made real and interesting by the power of the
novelist, subjected to tyranny and suffering from which every generous
nature recoiled. Slavery then assumed a new and more personal aspect,
and thousands who were indifferent to the rights of the negroes in
general felt a sympathy with the fate of Uncle Tom which easily
extended to the sufferings of the whole race. But the extraordinary
reputation and circulation given to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by the
world-wide interest in its subject, could not be sustained when public
interest in that subject declined; and the volume which at one time
occupied the attention of the whole civilized world, fell into
comparative obscurity when its mission was accomplished.

IX.

Works of fiction occupied with purely imaginary or supernatural
subjects have been comparatively rare. While Byron, Shelley and his
wife were living at the Lake of Geneva, a rainy week kept them indoors,
and all three occupied themselves with reading or inventing ghost
stories. Mrs. Shelley, who was the daughter of Godwin the novelist, and
who inherited his intensity of imagination, reproduced the impressions
then made upon her mind in the remarkable but disagreeable romance of
"Frankenstein." The story is related by a young student, who creates a
monstrous being from materials gathered in the tomb and the
dissecting-room. When the creature is made complete with bones,
muscles, and skin, it acquires life and commits atrocious crimes. It
murders a friend of the student, strangles his bride, and finally comes
to an end in the Northern seas. While some parts of the story are
written with considera