Smith, be accepted
as the representatives of the Romance and Drama of the modern English
school. It is not one of the least crimes of which these unwholesome
writers are guilty, that they present to their own countrymen, and to
the world at large, only foul exceptions, hideously exaggerated, which
they would have us believe are faithful pictures of the mass; and in
their eager endeavours to interest and excite the unthinking many, rouse
the disgust and alarm of all well-constituted and thoughtful minds. The
perilous consequences of popular literature in France are finely pointed
out by M. Michelet. The timid take fright, when the people are
represented as monsters in the books which are greedily devoured, and
intensely applauded by the majority of their readers. "What!" cry the
citizens, "are the people so constituted? Then, let us increase our
police, arm ourselves, shut our doors, and bolt them." And all the alarm
has been occasioned by a conceited, and it may be clever, coxcomb, who,
descending from his drawing-room, has asked the first passenger in the
street where-abouts the People lived. He met with a fool, who directed
him to the galleys, the prisons, and the stews.

"One day," writes M. Michelet, "there came a man to the famous
Themistocles, and proposed to him an art of memory. He answered
bitterly, 'Give me rather the art of forgetfulness.' May God give me
this art, to forget from this moment all your monsters, your fantastic
creations, those shocking exceptions with which you perplex my subject!
You go about, spyglass in hand; you hunt in the gutters, and find there
some dirty filthy object, and bring it to us, exclaiming--'Triumph! we
have found the people!'

"To interest us in them, they show them to us forcing doors and picking
locks. To these picturesque descriptions they add those profound
theories, by which the People, if we listen to them, justify themselves
in their own eyes for this crusade against property. Truly, it is a
great misery, in addition to so many others, for them to have these
imprudent friends. These theories and these acts are by no means of the
people. The mass is, doubtless, neither pure nor irreproachable; but
still, if you want to characterise it by the idea which prevails in the
immense majority, you will find it occupied in founding by toil,
economy, and the most respectable means, the immense work which
constitutes the strength of this country, the participation of all
classes