Page:The Last Days of Pompeii - Bulwer-Lytton - Volume 1.djvu/22

 human passions and the human heart, whose elements in all ages are the same! One word more,—let me be permitted to remind the reader, that if I have succeeded in giving some interest and vitality to a description of classic manners and to a tale of a classic age, I have succeeded where all hitherto have failed: a necessary corollary from this proposition is one equally consolatory though less triumphant, viz. if I have failed in the attempt, I fail where no one has succeeded. After this sentence, I can but conclude at once.—Can I say anything more effectually to prove, that an author never shows half so much ingenuity as in making out the best possible case for his own performance?