no reservations and no false lights. Here he stands, this half-fabulous
being, not sheathed in sham armour and padding the stage in buskins, but
a real personality at length, "with all his weaknesses and faults, his
prejudices, affectations, vanities, susceptibilities, and
eccentricities, and also with all his great qualities of industry,
courage, kindness of heart; sound judgment, patience, and perseverance."
Lord Lytton has carried through to the close a biographical enterprise
of unusual difficulty, and he deserves the thanks of all students of
English literature.




THE CHALLENGE OF THE BRONTËS[7]


Although I possess in no degree the advantage which so many of the
members of your society enjoy in being personally connected with the
scenes and even, perhaps, with the characters associated with the Brontë
family, I cannot begin my little address to you to-day without some
invocation of the genius of the place. We meet at Dewsbury because the
immortal sisters were identified with Dewsbury. Is it then not
imperative that for whatever picture of them I may endeavour to present
before you this afternoon, Dewsbury should form the background?
Unfortunately, however, although in the hands of a skilful painter the
figures of the ladies may glow forth, I fear that in the matter of
taking Dewsbury as the background some vagueness and some darkness are
inevitable. In the biographies of Mrs. Gaskell and of Mr. Clement
Shorter, as well as in the proceedings of your society, I have searched
for evidences of the place Dewsbury took in the lives of the Brontës.