But it is just fidelity to the human interest of every subject that
gives the novelist his rank; that makes--to take another instance--a
page or two of Balzac, when Balzac is dealing with money, of more
value than the whole of _l'Argent_.

Of Burke it has been said by a critic with whom it is a pleasure for
once in a way to agree, that he knew how the whole world lived.

"It was Burke's peculiarity and his glory to apply the
imagination of a poet of the first order to the facts and
business of life.... Burke's imagination led him to look over the
whole land: the legislator devising new laws, the judge
expounding and enforcing old ones, the merchant despatching all
his goods and extending his credit, the banker advancing the
money of his customers upon the credit of the merchant, the
frugal man slowly accumulating the store which is to support him
in old age, the ancient institutions of Church and University
with their seemly provisions for sound learning and true
religion, the parson in his pulpit, the poet pondering his
rhymes, the farmer eyeing his crops, the painter covering his
canvases, the player educating the feelings. Burke saw all this
with the fancy of a poet, and dwelt on it with the eye of a
lover."

Now all this, which is true of Burke, is true of the very first
literary artists--of Shakespeare and Balzac. All this, and more--for
they not only see all this immense activity of life, but the emotions
that animate each of the myriad actors.

Suppose them to treat of commerce: they see not only the goods and