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xii deron too, and portions of Lope de Vega, whose works might resist the best efforts of an English artist, have been revived and brought out with perfect similitude and facility.

Such desultory remarks may be thought irrelevant in a preface to three little volumes, selected from the works of minor novelists; nor, though the language be rich and flexible, will it follow that such authors should always take advantage of the power thus afforded them. German readers are, in fact, very easily excited, and in their popular romances, while incident and character are by no means wanting, yet these are seldom or never brought forward in that style of alto relievo which has become indispensable in this country. On the contrary, the novelist may come before the public as often as he thinks proper, in night-gown and slippers, quite assured that he will be greeted with as much good will (if not as much respect) as if he were in gala attire, with brilliant