SHAM ADMIRATION IN LITERATURE. 57 



tend to love it. It is partly in consequence of this that works, not 

 only of acknowledged but genuine excellence, such as those I have 

 been careful to select, are, though so universally praised, so little 

 read. The poor student attempts them, but, failing from many 

 causes, no doubt, but also sometimes from the fact of their not being 

 there to find those unrivaled beauties which he has been led to ex- 

 pect in every sentence, he stops short, where he would otherwise have 

 gone on. He says to himself, " I have been deceived," or " I must be 

 a born fool " ; whereas he is wrong in both suppositions. I am con- 

 vinced that the want of popularity of Walter Scott among the rising 

 generation is partly due to this extravagant laudation ; and I am 

 much mistaken if another great author, more recently deceased, will 

 not in a few years be added to the ranks of those who are more 

 praised than read from the same cause. 



The habit of mere adhesion to received opinion in any matter 

 is most mischievous, for it strikes at the root of independence of 

 thought ; and in literatxire it tends to make the public taste mechani- 

 cal. It is very seldom that what is called the verdict of posterity 

 (absurdly enough, for are not ice posterity ? ) is ever reversed ; but 

 it has chanced to happen in a certain case quite lately. The produc- 

 tion of " The Iron Chest " upon the stage has once more brought into 

 fashion " Caleb Williams." Now, that is a woi-k, though by no means 

 belonging to the same rank as those to which I have referred, which 

 has a fine old crusted reputation. Time has hallowed it. The great 

 world of readers (who have never read it) used to echo the remark of 

 Bias and Company, that this and that modern work of fiction re- 

 minded them though at an immense distance, of course of God- 

 win's masterpiece. I remember Le Fanu's "Uncle Silas," for example 

 (from some similarity, more fanciful perhaps than real, in the isolation 

 of its hero), being thus compared with it. Now, " Caleb Williams " 

 is founded on a very fine conception one that could only have oc- 

 curred, perhaps, to a man of genius ; the first part of it is well 

 worked out, but toward the middle it grows feeble, and it ends in 

 tediousness and drivel ; whereas " Uncle Silas " is good and strong 

 from first to last. Le Fanu has never been so popular as, in my 

 humble judgment, he deserves to be, but of course modern readers 

 were better acquainted with him than with Godwin. Yet nine out of 

 ten were always heard repeating this cuckoo cry about the latter's 

 superiority, until "The Iron Chest" came oiit, and fashion induced 

 them to read him for themselves ; which has very properly changed 

 their opinion. 



I remember, in my own case, that, from that mere reverence for 

 authority which I hope I share with my neighbors, I used to speak 

 of "Headlong Hall" and "Crotchet Castle" both great favorites of 

 our forefathers with much respect, until one wet day in the country 

 I found myself shut up with them. I won't say what I suffered ; 



