340 THE &quot; WANDERING JEW.&quot; [CHAP. XXXIX. 



the indiscriminate reading of popular works by the 

 multitude, when the higher classes and clergy can exert 

 little or no control in the selection of the books read, 

 the wonderful success of Eugene Sue s &quot; Wandering 

 Jew&quot; was pointed out to me by many, with no small 

 concern. This led me to ask Mr. Harper how many 

 copies he had disposed of, and he answered, &quot; 80,000, 

 issued in different shapes, and at various prices.&quot; It 

 had so often been thrust into my hands in railway 

 cars, and so much talked of, that, in the course of 

 my journey, I began to read it in self-defence ; and, 

 having begun, could not stop till I had finished the 

 whole, although the style of the original loses half 

 its charms in an imperfect translation. &quot; Le vieux 

 dragon,&quot; for example, is always rendered the &quot;old 

 dragon,&quot; instead of &quot;dragoon,&quot; and the poetry of a bril 

 liant passage is nearly destroyed by &quot;defense&quot; being 

 translated &quot;defence,&quot; instead of &quot;barrier,&quot; with other 

 blunders equally unpardonable. Yet the fascination 

 of the original, and its power to fix the attention, 

 triumph over these disadvantages and over the vio 

 lence done to probability in the general plot, and 

 over the extravagance of many of its details. The 

 gross, sensual, and often licentious descriptions in 

 which the author indulges, in some scenes, and still 

 more, such sentimental immorality as is involved in 

 the sympathy demanded for Hardy s love and in 

 trigue with a married woman (he being represented 

 as the model of a high-minded philanthropist), 

 make one feel the contrast of such a work with the 

 chaste and pure effusions of Scott s genius. Yet 

 there is much pure feeling, many touches of tender- 



