conception of a great work to execute preparatory sketches not worthy of mention by the side of her other works, it is impossible to refrain from deploring the loss to the world. Let others take upon themselves to compare these 'characters' with similar literary productions; for us none but herself can be her parallel. Others may take up the half-disguised challenge of the motto from Phædrus (3 Prol. 45-50); we do not care to discuss whether Pepin is Mr. Gladstone or Dugong Du Bois-Reymond.
For us, the chief interest in George Eliot's new work has been that which we are confident will be its chief interest to the future students of her works. The light thrown by it on the scientific strain in her literary character, the light thrown upon the workmanship of her second period, give the book a sort of pathological interest to the student of literature. The choice of the autobiographical form (used only once before, in the remarkable sketch à la E. A. Poe, The Lifted Veil) may have its significance for the next generation. But, apart from these points of view, the studies are but chips from the workshop, which might well have been left on the ground, only to be lifted thence at the time when everything of the author shall become precious.
