Chapter XIX

occurs the remark, “Perhaps in Vanity Fair there are no better satires than letters.”

[126] _Ibid._, I, 214.

[127] _Ibid._, I, 233.

[128] _Vanity Fair_, II, 304.

[129] Among countless such gems, the following is of purest ray serene:

“Oh, be humble, my brother, in your prosperity! Be gentle with those who are less lucky, if not more deserving. Think, what right have you to be scornful, whose virtue is a deficiency of temptation, whose success may be a chance, whose rank may be an ancestor’s accident, whose prosperity is very likely a satire.” _Vanity Fair_, II, 43.

[130] _Pendennis_, II, 53.

The introductory chapter of _The Newcomes_ needs only to be recalled as an instance of the satirical fable. Nor is the beginning of _Henry Esmond_ lacking in the satirical tone.

[131] _Oliver Twist_, 350. The idea was possibly suggested by _Sartor Resartus_.

[132] _Nicholas Nickleby_, I, 286. This thrust is aimed especially at _Paul Clifford_.

[133] _Barnaby Rudge_, I, 296.

[134] _Bleak House_, 553.

[135] _Little Dorrit_, I, 139.

[136] Cf. his description of one of his favorite characters, Nesta Radnor,--“what she did, she intended to do.”

[137] _Beauchamp’s Career_, 2, 3, 4.

[138] _Beauchamp’s Career_, 6.

[139] _The Egoist_, 132. Later he indicates the corollary of this,--

“But not many men are trained to courage; young women are trained to cowardice. For them to front an evil with plain speaking is to be guilty of effrontery and forfeit the waxen polish of purity, and therewith their commanding place in the market.” _Ibid._, 296.

Cf. _Evan Harrington_, 208, for the muddled state of a young woman’s mind, only to be penetrated by “that zigzag process of inquiry conducted by following her actions, for she can tell you nothing, and if she does not want to know a particular matter, it must be a strong beam from the central system of facts that shall penetrate her.”

[140] _The Egoist_, 156.

[141] _The Egoist_, 5.

[142] _The Egoist_, 5.

[143] _Our Mutual Friend_, I, 166.

[144] Trollope: _Barchester Towers_, 299.

[145] _The Egoist_, 4. The “her” refers to Comedy.

[146] _Barchester Towers_, 472–3.

[147] _Last Chronicles of Barset._

[148] Book II,