title The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, first appeared in monthly parts, and was hailed with great delight, establishing for the author the beginning of the great fame which he afterward attained as a novelist.

Volume after volume followed rapidly from his pen, and after having published Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge, Dickens made a visit to America, in which he gleaned the material for his American Notes for General Circulation and Martin Chuzzlewit, in which works he greatly exaggerated such peculiarities and eccentricities of the Americans as fell under his observation. But this is characteristic of all his work. It is caricature and exaggeration, in a great measure, that have made his writings popular.

After Dickens's return from America he spent a year in Italy, and then, returning to England, established and edited the Daily News. But he soon abandoned this, and again began his favorite work of writing fiction. Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, and Bleak House appeared in succession. In 1850 he took charge of Household Words, which afterward became his own property under the name All the Year Round, and in this he published most of his subsequent novels in weekly installments.

Among Dickens's other works are Christmas Stories, A Child's History of England, and the novels Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and Edwin Drood; the last of which was left incomplete at the time of his death, from overwork, ir. 1870.

CRITICISM BY TAINE.

WHEN the mind, with rapt attention, penetrates the minute details of a precise image, joy and grief shake

the whole man. Dickens has this attention and sees these details; this is why he meets everywhere with objects of exaltation. He never abandons his impassioned tone; he never rests in a natural style and in simple narrative; he only rails or weeps; he writes but satires or elegies. . . . . This impassioned style is extremely potent, and to it may be attributed half the glory of Dickens. The majority of men have only weak emotions. We labor mechanically, and yawn much; three-fourths of things leave us cold; we go to sleep by habit, and we no longer remark the household scenes, petty details, stale adventures, which are the basis of our existence. A man comes who suddenly renders them interesting; nay, who makes them dramatic, changes them into objects of admiration, tenderness, and dread.

We are immersed for two hundred pages in a torrent of new emotions, contrary and increasing, which communicates its violence to the mind, which carries it away in digressions and falls, and only casts it on the bank enchanted and exhausted. It is an intoxication, and on a delicate soul the effect would be too forcible; but it suits the English public, and that public has justified it.

THE LAST HOURS OF LITTLE PAUL DOMBEY.

PAUL had never risen from his little bed. He lay there, listening to the noises in the street, quite tranquilly; not caring much how the time went, but watching everything about him with observing eyes. When the sunbeams struck into his room through the rustling 5 blinds, and quivered on the opposite wall like golden

ANALYSIS.-6, 7. Point out the figure in these lines. Give the grammatical construction of like and water.

water, he knew that evening was coming on, and that the sky was red and beautiful. As the reflection died away, and the gloom went creeping up the wall, he watched it deepen, deepen, deepen into night. Then 10 he thought how the long streets were dotted with lamps, and how peaceful stars were shining overhead. His fancy had a strange tendency to wander to the river, which he knew was flowing through the great city; and now he thought how black it was, and how 15 deep it would look, reflecting the hosts of stars, and, more than all, how steadily it rolled away to meet the sea.

As it grew later in the night, and footsteps in the street became so rare that he could hear them coming, 20 count them as they passed, and lose them in the hollow distance, he would lie and watch the many-colored ring about the candle and wait patiently for day. His only trouble was, the swift and rapid river. He felt forced, sometimes, to try to stop it-to stem it with his childish 25 hands, or choke its way with sand-and when he saw it coming on, resistless, he cried out. But a word from Florence, who was always at his side, restored him to himself; and, leaning his poor head upon her breast, he told Floy of his dream, and smiled.

When day began to dawn again, he watched for the sun; and when its cheerful light began to sparkle in the room, he pictured to himself-pictured! He saw the

ANALYSIS.-10. Give the grammatical construction of deepen.

15. Name the objective modifiers of thought.

21, 22. hollow distance. What figure?

25. Give the grammatical construction of to try and to stop.

27. Give the grammatical construction of coming and resistless.

28, 29. restored him to himself. Elucidate.

29. his poor head What figure?

32. cheerful light. What figure?

30

high church-towers rising up into the morning sky, the town reviving, waking, starting into life once more, the 35 river glistening as it rolled (but rolling fast as ever), and the country bright with dew. Familiar sounds and cries came by degrees into the street below; the servants in the house were roused and busy; faces looked in at the door, and voices asked his attendants softly how he 40 was. Paul always answered for himself, "I am better. I am a great deal better, thank you! Tell papa so."

By little and little he got tired of the bustle of the day, the noise of carriages and carts, people passing and repassing; and would fall asleep, or be troubled with a 45 restless and uneasy sense again-the child could hardly tell whether this were in his sleeping or his waking moments-of that rushing river. "Why, will it never stop, Floy?" he would sometimes ask her. "It is bearing me away, I think."

But Floy could always soothe and reassure him; and it was his daily delight to make her lay her head down on his pillow and take some rest.

50

"You are always watching me, Floy. Let me watch you, now." They would prop him up with cushions in 55 a corner of his bed, and there he would recline the while she lay beside him; bending forward oftentimes to kiss her, and whispering to those who were near that she was tired, and how she had sat up so many nights beside him.

Thus the flush of the day, in its heat and light, woul

ANALYSIS. 34, 35. the town reviving, waking, etc. What figure? 35. Give the grammatical construction of reviving, waking, starting, glistening.

39, 40. faces looked in, voices asked, etc. What figure?

46-48. child.... moments. Give the grammatical construction of all the words.

56. Parse the word while.

60

gradually decline; and again the golden water would be dancing on the wall.

He was visited by as many as three grave doctorsthey used to assemble down stairs, and come up to- 65 gether and the room was so quiet, and Paul was so observant of them (though he never asked of anybody what they said), that he even knew the difference in the sound of their watches. But his interest centred in Sir Parker Peps, who always took his seat on the side 70 of the bed. For Paul had heard them say long ago that that gentleman had been with his mamma when she clasped Florence in her arms and died. And he could not forget it now. He liked him for it. He was not afraid. . . . . Paul closed his eyes with those words, and fell asleep. When he awoke the sun was high, and the broad day was clear and warm. He lay a little, looking at the windows, which were open, and the curtains rustling in the air, and waving to and fro: then he said, "Floy, is 80 it to-morrow? Is she come?"

....

75

Some one seemed to go in quest of her. Perhaps it was Susan. Paul thought he heard her telling him, when he had closed his eyes again, that she would soon be back; but he did not open them to see. She kept 85 her word-perhaps she had never been away-but the

ANALYSIS.-62. the golden water, etc. What figure?

64. as many as three.... doctors. Give the grammatical construc tion of all these words.

68. even knew. Notice the force of even as an emphatic adverb, relating to the entire expression.

71. Parse long ago; also, that that gentleman.

76. fell asleep. Give the grammatical construction.

77. What is the meaning of broad day?

81. Is she come? Notice the use of is come for has come.

82. quest. Give a more modern word.