walks, he shows the triumph of honest, straightforward earnestness and
pertinacious courage, even when they are brought in conflict with
authority. "The Poor Gentleman" closes the series; and, selecting a
heroine from the educated classes of his country-people M. Conscience
has demonstrated how superior a _genuine woman_ becomes to all the
mishaps of fortune, and how successfully she subdues that imaginary
_fate_ before which so many are seen to fall.

It would be difficult to describe this remarkable work without analyzing
the tale and criticizing its personages. This would anticipate the
author and mar the interest of his story. We must confine ourselves,
therefore, to general remarks on its structure and characteristics.

_Pontmartin_, the distinguished French _feuilletonist_, says, in one of
his "Literary Chats," that these simple stories are "pearls set in
Flemish gold,--a gold which alchemysts seek for in alembics and
furnaces, but which Conscience has found in the inexhaustible veins of
nature." "The Poor Gentleman," he remarks, "is a tale of not more than a
hundred and fifty pages; but I would not give its shortest chapter for
all the _romances_ I ever read. The perplexed De Vlierbeck--who ought to
have had Caleb Balderstone for a servant--is one of those characters
that engrave themselves indelibly on our memory." In every trait and
detail the author has attained a photographic minuteness; which, while
it is distinct and sharp, never interferes with that motion, breadth,
and picturesque effect that impart life and reality to a story. Nor can
we doubt that it will be read and re-read as long as there is a particle
of that feeling among us which installed the Vicar of Wakefield, Paul
and Virginia, the Crock of Gold, the Sketch-book, and the Tales of a
Traveller, among the heirlooms of every tasteful household. The "Tales
of Flemish Life" are additions to that rare stock of home-literature