knowledge of them which possessed by the public me from entering into any criticism of their peculiar or occasional defects nor do i think it either necessary or desirable to introduce from novels which are so well known and appreciated by the great body of tlie readers of fiction there are however some few remarks which occur to me which may not be out of place when we are considering the life and character of the gifted of these works and the circumstances under which they were written my first observation then is to the effect that in all her books the heroes are decidedly inferior to the their characters less vigorously drawn and themselves less interesting to the reader there they are because every heroine requires a hero but in every case it is she and not he who is the prominent figure in the play v f on t the s let us take the six novels into view bide and prejudice us sense and edward abbey henry park � mr and captain then look at the six to match � she is sometimes spoken of in the novel as and it is noticeable in our letters that jane constantly calls her price and anne � how much more we seem to know and to with the women than the men throughout is really the only one for whom i feel much regard he was certainly a fault of jane os t to his from such a connection and when he found himself by the of elizabeth he got rid of his pride with a rapidity as as that with which the lady dismissed her prejudice i think that we are told more of than of most of jane s other heroes and the gradual alteration of elizabeth s opinion of him as his character becomes better understood and consequently better appreciated by her is told and worked out in the most admirable manner the gentleman s disposition was not one which made him likely to be the victim of a hasty attachment and we watch with interest the struggle which goes on in his mind before he allows his growing love for elizabeth to conquer his objections to her family when this result has been accomplished the lady is still perfectly unaware of the conquest which she has achieved and his declaration to her at the where is on a visit to her friend takes her entirely by surprise this is a very good scene in itself and marks an epoch in the hero s life for her of his advances has a marvellous effect upon him to the very great improvement of his character lie novels her decision in a manner which would have made it difficult for an writer to bring the two together again except hj some strange and method jane it all in a most natural manner some words of regarding his two greatest � the of her sister s lover and the supposed wrongs of � induce him to write a long letter of explanation which the change in the lady s heart and from tliat moment only appears during the rest of the story in the most amiable light i reject altogether the idea that the beauties of had any effect in elizabeth to her refusal and the sole doubt which remains upon my mind is the extent to which gratitude s letters of jane t edward scarcely much respect whatever excuse there may be for his conduct he in such a manner as to induce to believe him attached to herself whilst all the time he was engaged to another woman for if this had not been the case the discovery of the engagement would not have filled the sensible heroine with such astonishment and dismay his engagement was a boyish from which a man of any strength of character would have freed himself as soon as he found how much he had mistaken his own feelings and how he and the lady were to each other whilst there something ludicrous in the rapidity with which the very moment that his fool of a brother has conveniently taken her off his h he off to to make her happy by the assurance that he had really been all the while false to the lady whom he had still proposed to marry and had loved her and her alone although perfectly prepared to sacrifice her to his absurd engagement his readiness moreover to become a clergyman because was found for him does not add to the of his character but jane s picture of a clergyman is oh t the novels generally that of a second sou enters the profession in order to hold a family living an idea not unnatural in the daughter of one who was himself tiie possessor of one of those our two next heroes and are to be in this of the former indeed we know very little a ball room acquaintance at bath whose father being deceived as to s position and fortune lier to and courts her on his son s behalf until he out the mistake we really know nothing more of this hero than that lie a certain amount of amiable good sense in his conversations with and a creditable degree of in refusing to give her up at hie father s command or to root letters of jane oh t his superiority to the other members of his family and general good conduct throughout the story him to our respect if not to something more we cannot help feeling sorry that he did not show a little more in the matter of the but are pleased at liis readiness to give price at a time when he was not the least in love with her the full credit which she deserved for her conduct upon that trying occasion he may be blamed for having been attracted by the of miss when 