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ssertion, a denial, a taunt, a compliment, a joke, and
fifty other things, became in the present instance, with a
significance beyond all power of written expression, our
familiar English " I believe you!"—" Haha! You are
right I A gentleman lam ! And a gentleman I'll live,
and a gentleman I'll die ! It's my intent to be a
gentleman. It's my game. Death of my soul, I play it
out wherever Igo !" He changed his posture to a sitting
one, crying with a triumphant air: " Here I am ! See
me ! Shaken out of destiny's dicebox into the company
of a mere smuggler ;—shut up with a poor little con-
traband trader, whose papers are wrong, and whom the
police lay hold of, besides, for placing his boat (as a
means of getting beyond the frontier) at the disposition
of other little people whose papers are wrong; and he
instinctively recognises my position, even by this light
and in this place. It's well done! By Heaven! I win,
however the game goes." Again his moustache went up,
and his nose came down. " What's the hour, now ?" he
asked, with a dry hot pallor -upon him, rather difficult of
association with merriment.—" A little half-hour after
mid-day."--" Good ! The President will have a gentle-
man before him soon. Come ! Shall I tell you on what ac-
cusation P It must be now or never, for I shall not return
here. Either I shall go free, or I thall go to be made
ready for shaving. You know where they keep the razor."
Signor Cavalletto took his cigarette from between his
parted lips, and showed more momentary discomfiture
than might have been expected. " I am a'—(Monsieur
Rigaud stood up to say it)—l am a cosmopolitan gentle-
man. I own no particular country. My father was
Swiss—Canton de Vaud. My mother was French by
blood, English by birth. I myself was born in Belgium.
I am a citizen of the world." His theatrical air, as he
stood with one arm on his hip, within the folds of his
cloak, together with his manner of disregarding his com-
panion and addressing the opposite wall instead, seemed
to intimate that he was rehearsing for the President,
whose examination he was shortly to undergo, rather than
troubling himself merely to enlighten so small a person as
John Baptist Cavalletto. "Call me five-and-thirty-years
of age. I have seen the world. I have lived here, and
lived there, and lived like a gentleman everywhere. I
have been treated and respected as a gentleman uni-
versally. If you try to prejudice me, by making out
that I have lived by my wits—how do your lawyers
live—your politicians—your intriguers—your men of the
Exchange ?" He kept his small smooth hand in con-
stant requisition, as if it were a witness to his gentility,
that had often done him good service before. " Two
years ago I came to Marseilles. I admit that I was
poor; I had been ill. When your lawyers, your
politicians, your intriguers, your men of the Exchange,
fall ill, and have not scraped money together, they
become poor. I put up at the Cross of Gold,—kept then
by Monsieur Henri Barronneau—sixty-6ve at least, and
in a failing state of health. I had lived in the house
some four months, when Monsieur Henri Barronneau had
the misfortune to die;—at any rate, not a rare misfortune,
that. It 'happens without any aid of mine, pretty often."
John Baptist having smoked his cigarette down to his
fingers' ends, Monsieur Rigaud had the magnanimity to
throw him another. He lighted the second at the ashes
of the first, and smoked on, looking sideways at his
companion, who, pre-occupied with his own case, hardly
looked at him. " Monsieur Barronneau left a widow.
She was two-and-twenty. She bad gained a reputation
for beauty, and (which is often another thing) was beautiful.
I continued to live at the Cross of Gold. I married
Madame Barronneau. It is not for me to say whether
there was any great disparity in such a match. Here I
stand, with the contamination of a jail upon me; but it is
possible that you may think me better suited to her than
her former husband was." He bad a certain air of being
a handsome man—which he was not; and a certain air
of being a well-bred man—which he was not. It was
mere swagger and challenge ; but in this particular, as in
many others, blustering assertion goes for proof, half over
the world. "Be it as it may, Madame Barronneau
approved of me. That is not to prejudice me I hope?
His eye happening to light upon John Baptist with this
inquiry; that little man briskly shook his head in the
negative, and repeated in an argumentative tone under his
breath, altro, altro, altro, altro—an infinite number of
times. " Now came the difficulties of our position. lam
proud. I say nothing in defence of pride; but lam
proud. It is also my character to govern. I can't
submit ; I must govern. Unfortunately, the property of
Madame Rigaud was settled upon herself. Such was the
insane act of her late husband. More unfortunately still,
she had relations. When a wife's relations interpose
against a husband who is a gentleman, who is proud, and
who must govern, the consequences are inimical to peace.
There was yet another source of difference between us.
Madame Rigaud was unfortunately a little vulgar. I
sought to improve her manners and ameliorate her general
tone ; she (supported in this likewise by her relations) re-
sented my endeavours. Quarrels began to arise between
us ; and, propagated and exaggerated by the slanders of
the relations of Madame Rigaud, to become notorious to

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the neighbours. It has been said that I treated Madame
Rigaud with cruelty. I may have been seen to slap her
face—nothing more. I have a light hand; and if I have
been seen apparently to correct Madame Rigttud in that
manner, I have done it almost playfully." If the playful-
ness of Monsieur Rigaud was at all expressed by his smile
at this point, the relations of Madame Rigaud might have
said that they would have much preferred his correcting
that unfortunate woman seriously. " I am sensitive and
brave. Ido not advance it as a merit to be sensitive and
brave, but it is my character. If the male relations of
Madame Rigaud had put themselves forward openly, I
should have known how to deal with them. They knew
that, and their machinations were conducted in secret ;
consequenily, Madame Rigaud and I were brought into
frequent and unfortunate collision. Even when I wanted
any little sum of money for my personal expenses, I could
not obtain it without a collision —and I too, a man whose
character it is to govern ! One night, Madame Rigaud and
myself were walking amicably—l may say like lovers—
on a height overhanging the sea. An evil star occasioned
Madame Rigaud to advert to her relations; I reasoned
with her on that subject, and remonstrated on the want
of duty, and devotion manifested in her allowing herself
to be influenced by their jealous animosity towards her
husband. Madame Rigaud retorted; I retorted. Madame
Rigaud grew warm ; I grew warm, and provoked her.
I admit it. Frankness is a part of my character. At
length, Madame Rigaud, in an access of fury that I.
must ever deplore, threw herself upon me with screams
of passion (no doubt those that were overheard at some
distance), tore my clothes, tore my hair, lacerated my
hands, trampled and trod the dust, and finally leaped
over, dashing herself to death upon the rocks below. Such
is the train of incidents which malice has perverted into
my endeavouring to force from Madame Rigaud a relin-
quishment of her rights; and, on her persistence in a re-
fusal to make the concession I required, struggling with
her—assassinating her !"

The above most happily-sketched bit of auto-
biography appears to us " something new under
the sun" of Charles Dickens' literary zodiac ;
and, from the force of its suggestive accuracy,
and the perfect keeping of its accessories, we are
inclined to augur well his dramatic success in the
treatment of such characters. From the intro-
duction it is not unfair to believe that ere " Little
Dorrit" is completed, Monsieur Rigaud will be-
come more familiar to the readers of the work.
He comes upon the stage with a strut becoming
" the gay, bold-faced villain," and in many of his
lineaments there will be readily traced the peculiar
features of a criminal whose case, not many years
ago, occupied a great portion of the general at-
tention, and formed a conspicuous object of con-
sideration in the judicial and other circles of
Dublin.

Copious, although not numerous, as our ex-
tracts have already been, we have not been able
to introduce any of the leading dramatis persona,
with the exception, perhaps, of M. Rigaud, whom
as yet we can only conjecture as belonging to
that category; but we have not said a word about
Mr. and Mrs. Meagles, the type of the English
practical man and matron ; of their interesting
daughter " Pet," and her singularly-named maid
" Tattycoram," all of whom are introduced in
the first part, and so pleasingly or amusingly
presented as to afford very tempting material for
quotation; but we must desist, and in doing so con-
clude our present observations by advising all to
procure the book, and read it for themselves.

The Life and Works of Goethe : with Sketches
of his Age and Contemporaries, from published
and unpublished sources. By G. H. Lewes.
London : Nutt.
The two volumes which Mr. Lewes has con-
structed out of the great mass and still rapidly
accumulating collection of materials connected
with the literary life and history of Goethe form
a valuable addition to the literature of the day.
The author has obviously employed great pains
upon the work, and has brought to bear upon it
a mind capable of exercising the most vigorous
condensation without impairing the lucidity of
his narrative, and to prastice compression while
he carefully preserves the beauty of symmetry. In

executing his task he has performed a
Jove in such a manner as to confer a
upon the English reading public.
studying and perseverance in masters,
ject are clearly manifested in the hal
which he has been enabled to present
before the world. The result of his
applied labours is the production of a
containing all that the general reader
know, and that has been put before
pleasing and perspicuous light.
Like many of the world's most di..
men, Goethe was the son of a clever and
tempered woman, who, while recogelf
pride as well as maternal solicitude the
of future greatness which her gifted sell
at an early period of his boyhood, was
prompt and skilful in rendering assistance
development of his peculiar genius. Jo:
quick in discernment, she delighted to •
stories for her son's amusement ; and these
of a fanciful character, they became 'll°'
nating for the opening intellect of her
son, and he and his mother became, fr°,
early period of his life, devoted and 10'
panions. In the biography before us
many illustrations of the proverb, that ~
is father of the man," but in none, '
this better illustrated than in the anni
of

MOTHER AND SON.
His mother spoiled him somewhat. On Suncl'
while the family is at church, Master Wolfgr
self in the kitchen, which looks up the street.
begins to fling the crockery into the street, de)
smashing music which it makes, and stimulate
probation of the brothers Ochsenstein, who
from over the way. The plates and dishes '
way, as his mother returns : she sees the
housewifely horror melting into girlish sY'
hears how heartily the little fellow laughs •
and how the neighbours laugh at him. (801,;
This genial, indulgent mother employed bet
story-telling to his and her own delight. "N'T'
and water, I represented under the forms °.f
and to all natural phenomena I gave a mew/ilea
almost believed more fervently than my little
we thought of paths which led from star to e', ar
we should one day inhabit the stars, and th;
great spirits we should meet there, I was es el;
hours of story-telling as the children thenlee
quite curious about the future course of my 00
tion, and any invitation which interrupted the
was disagreeable. There I sat, and there W'
me with his large black eyes; and when the
his favourites was not according to his faneY'
angry veins swell on his temples, I saw him
tears. He often burst in with But, mother,
won't marry the nasty tailor, even if he does kl
And when I made a pause for the night, prof.
tinue it on the morrow, I was certain that be
meanwhile think it out for himself, and so be
lated my imagination. When I turned the sto
to his plan, and told him that he had found dot
ment, then he was all fire and,fl ime, and one
little heart beating underneath his dress! It
who made a great pet of him, was the col
ideas as to how the story would turn out,
nested these to me, and I turned the storY
these hints, there was a little diplomatic seceelro)
which we never disclosed. I had the pleasure( af
my story to the delight and astonishment °lop
and Wolfgang saw with growing eyes the fa,tics
own conceptions, and listened with enthtle°l';
What a charming glimpse of mother and sod • e
The beautifully expressed feeling °I
and filial attachment implied in the,
picture, although sufficiently evinced '
sage quoted, receives additional inter('
fact that the marriage of Goethe's !
not been one of love, at least on the r .11
bo
side ; and that her boy having bee° -
b
she was but eighteen years of age, -up tog'
of both may be said to have grool. sue
" I and my Wolfgng," says she, 111 bees;
" have always held fast to each other,
were sioll
were both young together," an exPi-whicl
timent which has some novelty, 1)11, foi
seems little reason to doubt,
human POI,'
the principles and affections of
ed itco
From infancy, Goethe was accustomed
into abstruse metaphysical inquiries, and r
is deeply ,