Beyond and above these things there is something else.
The very central cause and essence of it--most definitely and most keenly felt by nobler spirits and cultivated intelligences, but also dimly and unconsciously animating very ordinary people--is the human delight in humanity--the pleasure of seeing the men and women of long past ages living, acting, and speaking as they might have done, those of the present living, acting, speaking as they do--but in each case with the portrayal not as a mere copy of particulars, but influenced with that spirit of the universal which is the secret and the charm of art.
It is because the novels of these years recognised and provided this pleasure in a greater degree than those of the former period (except the productions of a few masters) that they deserve the higher position which has been here assigned them.

If the novels of any period, before or since or to come, have deserved, may or shall deserve, a lower place--it is, and will be, because of their comparative or positive neglect of the combination of these conditions.

Perhaps it is not easy to see what new country there is for the novel to conquer.

But, as with other kinds of literature, there is practically no limit to its powers of working its actual domains.

In the finest of its already existing examples it hardly yields in accomplishment even to poetry; in that great secondary (if secondary) office of all Art--to redress the apparent injustice, and console for the apparent unkindness, of Nature--to serve as rest and refreshment between those exactions of life which, though neither unjust nor unkind, are burdensome, it has no equal among all the kinds of Art itself.
INDEX _Adam Bede_ Adams, W.
Addison _Adeline Mowbray_ Aelfric _Agathos_ Ainsworth, H.
_Alton Locke_ _Amadis_ _Amelia_ _Amis and Amillion_ Amory, Thomas _Anabasis, The_ Anglo-Saxon, Romance in _Anna_ _Anna St.Ives_ _Apollonius of Tyre_ Apuleius Arblay, Madame d', _see_ Burney, F.
_Arcadia, The_ _Aretina_ _Arthour and Merlin_ Arthurian Legend, the; its romantic concentration _Ask Mamma_ _Ass, The Golden_ _Atlantis, The New_ Austen, Miss _Badman, Mr_.
Bage, R.
Balzac Banim _Barchester Towers_ Barrett, E.S.
_Barry Lyndon_ "Barsetshire Novels," the _Battle of the Books, The_ Beaconsfield, Lord, _see_ Disraeli, B.
Beckford Behn, Afra _Belinda_ Bennett, Mrs.
_Bentivolio and Urania_ _Beowulf_ Bergerac, C.de Berington, S.
Berkeley Berners, Lord _Bertrams, The_ _Beryn, The Tale of_ Besaut, Sir W.
_Betsy Thoughtless_ _Bevis of Hampton_ Black, W.
Blackmore, R.D.
Blair Borrow, George Boyle, Roger, Lord Broghill and Earl of Orrery _Brambletye House_ Bronte, Charlotte Emily and Anne Brooke, H.
Brunetiere, M.
Brunton, Mrs.
Bulwer, Sir E.B.Lytton (1st Lord Lytton) _Buncle, The life of John_ Bunyan Burney, F.
Byrne, Mrs.
Byron _Caleb Williams_ _Cambridge Freshman, The_ _Camilla_ _Canterbury Tales_ (the Misses Lee's) _Can You Forgive Her ?_ _Captain Singleton_ _Castle of Otranto, The_ _Catherine_ _Catriona_ _Caxtons, The_ _Cecilia_ Chamier, Captain _Charles O'Malley_ "Charlotte Elizabeth" Chateaubriand, 152 _Children of the Abbey, The_ _Chrestien de Troyes_ _Chronicles of Carlingford, The_ _Chrysal_ Circulating libraries, effort of _Clarissa_ Clive, Mrs.A.
_Cloister and the Hearth, The_ Coleridge Collins, Wilkie _Colonel Jack_ _Complaint of Deor, The_ Congreve _Convent of Grey Penitents, The_ Coventry, F.
"Coverley Papers," the Craik, Mrs.
_Cranford_ _Cripps the Carrier_ Crisp, "Daddy" Croker, Crofton Croly _Crotchet Castle_ Crowe, Mrs.
Crowne, John Croxall, Dr.
Cumberland, R.
_Cyropaedia, The_ Dante _David Simple_ Defoe Dickens Diderot _Discipline_ Disraeli, B.
_Divina Commedia, The_ Dumas Dunlop Edgeworth, Miss Ellis, G., _Early English Romances_ _Emare_ _Emilia Wyndham_ _Emma_ _English Rogue, The_ _Esmond_ _Euphues_ Eustathius Evans, Mary Ann ("George Eliot") _Evelina_ _Fair Quaker of Dea _Ferdinand Count Fathom_ Ferrier, Miss Fielding, H.
Fielding, S.
_Florence of Rome_ _Florice and Blancheflour_ _Fool of Quality, The_ Ford, Emmanuel _Fortunes of Nigel, The_ _Frank_ _Frank Fairlegh_ _Frank Mildmay_ Galt _Gamekeeper at Home, The_ Gaskell, Mrs.
_Gawain and the Green Knight_ Geoffrey of Monmouth "George Eliot," _see_ Evans, M.A.
Gilpin Glascock, Capt.
Godwin, W.
Goldsmith Gore, Mrs.
Graves, Rev.R.
Gray _Great Hoggarty Diamond, The_ Green, Sarah Grey, Mr.W.W.
_Gryll Grange_ _Guadentio di Lucca_ _Gulliver's Travels_ _Guy Livingstone_ _Guy of Warwick_ Hagiology, its effect on Romance Hamilton, Anthony Hardy, Mr.
_Haunted and the Haunters, The_ _Havelok the Dam_ Haywood, Eliza Hazlitt Head, R.
_Heir of Redclyffe, The_ _Heliodorus_ Henley, Mr.W.E.
_Henrietta Temple_ _Henry_ _Hereward the Wake_ _Hermsprong_ Herodotus _Heroine, The_ Holcroft, T.
_Holy War, The_ Hook, Theodore Hope _Horn, King_ _Humphry Clinker_ Hunt, Leigh _Hypatia_ _Idalia_ _Ida of Athena_ _Iliad The_ "Imitation" (the Greek=Fiction) Inchbald, Mrs.
_Incognita_ Ingelo, N.
_Ipomydon_ _Isle of Pines, The_ _Italian, The_ _It is Never too Late to Mend_ _Ixion_ _Jack Wilton_ _Jacob Faithful_ James, G.P.R.
_Jane Eyre_ Jefferies, R.
_Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy_ _John Runcle_ _John Inglesand_ Johnson, Dr.
Johnstone, C.
_Jonathan Wild_ "Jorrocks," Mr.
_Joseph Andrews_ _Journey from This World to the Next, A_ _Kate Coventry_ Kingsley, C.
Kingsley, H.
_King's Own, The_ Kirkman, F.
"Lady Mary" (Wortley-Montagu) _Lady Susan_ _Lancelot (of the Laik)_, the Scots _Last Chronicle of Barset, The_ Lawrence, G.A.
Layamon Lee, the Misses "L.E.L." Lennox, Mrs.
_Leoline and Sydanis_ Letter-form in novels Lever, C.
Lewis, M.G.
_Libertine, The_ Livy Lockhart _London_ Longus _Lorna Doone_ Lucian _Lybius Disconus_ Lydia Lyly Lytton, _see_ Bulwer Macaulay Macdonald, George Macfarlane, C.
Mackenzie, Henry Mackenzie, Sir George Malory _Man as He Is_ _Manley, Mrs._ _Man of Feeling, The_ _Mansfield Park_ Map, W.
_Marianne_ (Marivaux) _Marivaux_ Marryat, Captain Marsh, Mrs.
Martineau, Mrs.
_Mary Barton_ Maturin, C.R.
_Melincourt_ _Melmoth the Wanderer_ Melville, Mr.L.
_Memoirs of a Cavalier_ Meredith, Mr.George _Merlin_ Michelet _Mill on the Floss, The_ _Misfortunes of Elphin, The_ _Mr.Midshipman Easy_ _Mr.Verdant Green_ _Mrs.Veal_ _Moll Flanders_ _Monk, The_ _Montelion_ Moore, Dr.John Morgan, Lady Morier Morley of Blackburn, Lord Morris, W.
_Morte d'Arthur_, the alliterative; the metrical; Malory's Mosse, Henrietta _Mount Henneth_ _Mysteries of Udolpho, The_ Nash, T.
_Nature and Art_ Neville, H.
_Nightmare Abbey_ _No Name_ _North and South_ _Northanger Abbey_ _Novelist, The_ _Novella_, the Italian, influence of _Oceana_ _Odyssey, The_ _Old English Baron, The_ _Old Manor House, The_ Oliphant, Mrs.
Opie, Mrs.
_Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The_ _Ormond_ _Ornatus and Artesia_ _Oroonoko_ "Ouida" Ovid Paget, F.
_Palace of Pleasure_, Painter's Paltock, R.
_Pamela_ _Pandion and Amphigeneia_ Paris, M.Gaston _Parismus and Parismenus_ _Parthenissa_ _Paul Ferroll_ Peacock, T.L.
_Peep at Our Ancestors_ _Pendennis_ _Peregrine Pickle_ _Persuasion_ _Peter Simple_ _Peter Wilkins_ Petronius _Phantasies_ _Pharonnida_ _Pickwick Papers, The_ _Pilgrim's Progress, The_ Plato Poe, Edgar _Polite Conversation_ (Swift's) _Pompey the Little_ Porter, Miss _Pride and Prejudice_ _Proud King, The_ Publication, system of _Queenhoo Hall_ _Quixote, The Female_ _Quixote, The Spiritual_ Rabelais Radcliffe, Mrs.
Raleigh, Professor Sir Walter _Rasselas_ Reade, C.
_Recess, The_ Reeve, Clara Rice, James _Richard Coeur de Lion_ Richardson Ritson _Robinson Crusoe_ Robinson, Emma ( ?) Roche, R.M.
_Roderich Random_ Romance; its connection with the "Saint's Life"; not completely separable from novel; heroic _Romance Readers and Romance Writers_ _Romola_ "Rosa Matilda" _Roxana_ _Ruin, The_ _Ruth_ _St.Irvyne_ _St.Leon_ _St.Ronan's Well_ _Sayings and Doings_ "S.G.," _see_ Green, Sarah Scott, Michael Scott, Sir W.
_Sense and Sensibility_ _Sentimental Journey, A_ _Seven Wise Masters, The_ Sewell, Miss _Shabby Genteel Story, A_ _Shadow of the Cross, The_ Shadwell, Charles Shebbeare Shelley Sheridan, Frances Sherwood, Mrs.
_Shirley_ _Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ _Simple Story, A_ _Sir Amadas_ _Sir Charles Grandison_ _Sir Eglamour_ _Sir Eger, Sir Grame, and Sir Graysteel_ _Sir John Chiverton_ _Sir Isumhras_ _Sir Lancelot Greaves_ _Sir Launfal_ _Sir Orfeo_ _Sir Triamond_ _Sketches by Boz_ Smart, Capt.