^1 



of even a good author and his deliberate careful productions, 

 — between the original emanations of genius, and the second- 

 hand productions of an exhausted " bookseller's hack." 



Another class of Works, not to be found in the pages 

 of magazines, contains more than all the faults inseparable 

 from such productions ; they are those which are issued at 

 intervals, in shilling numbers, generally with a couple of 

 Illustrations to each number. The Pickwick Papers ex- 

 hibited the first specimen of this kind ; and as the eagle 

 is followed by the mocking bird, or Harry, the blacksmith, 

 had Oliver Proudfute to imitate him, so there are many 

 that take advantage of the public whim, and follow in the 

 train of Dickens. The interest in the stoiy is kept up, 

 sometimes for more than twelve months, like the newspaper 

 reports of an adjourned trial; and sometimes its style and 

 character are totally changed in the interval, without being 

 noticed. The plan of the Pickwick Series was altered in the 

 course of publication, yet thousands of readers learned the 

 fact only from the Author's preface. The characters were 

 altered in Master Humphrey's Clock, probably in conse- 

 quence of the contemporary periodical criticisms : and it 

 is only when one reads Martin Chuzzlewit as a whole, that 

 he sees the voyage to America, to be a complete excrescence 

 on the book, — like one of Crabbe's similes. But by far 

 the most singular work of this singular class, is Lover's 

 Handy Andy. A single paper, perfect in itself, which ap- 

 peared in Bentley's Miscellany, was so relished by the 

 public, that a demand was made for more. A somewhat 

 lame continuation was given in the second chapter, and at 

 length a new set of characters was introduced, and the 

 whole wound up as an illustrated story. But the parts, 

 especially at the beginning, hang together most incongru- 

 ously, and at any point, its conclusion might have been 

 distant three volumes, or only three pages. 



" But what is the general effect which this kind of lite- 



