to accomplish our present design: and that man is Hawthorne.
There is a unity, an unwavering creative purpose, about some
at least of Hawthorne's romances, that impresses itself on
the most indifferent reader; and the very restrictions and
weaknesses of the man served perhaps to strengthen the vivid
and single impression of his works. There is nothing of this
kind in Hugo: unity, if he attains to it, is indeed unity out
of multitude; and it is the wonderful power of subordination
and synthesis thus displayed, that gives us the measure of
his talent. No amount of mere discussion and statement, such
as this, could give a just conception of the greatness of
this power. It must be felt in the books themselves, and all
that can be done in the present essay is to recall to the
reader the more general features of each of the five great
romances, hurriedly and imperfectly, as space will permit,
and rather as a suggestion than anything more complete.

The moral end that the author had before him in the
conception of NOTRE DAME DE PARIS was (he tells us) to
"denounce" the external fatality that hangs over men in the
form of foolish and inflexible superstition. To speak
plainly, this moral purpose seems to have mighty little to do
with the artistic conception; moreover it is very
questionably handled, while the artistic conception is
developed with the most consummate success. Old Paris lives
for us with newness of life: we have ever before our eyes the
city cut into three by the two arms of the river, the boat-
shaped island "moored" by five bridges to the different
shores, and the two unequal towns on either hand. We forget
all that enumeration of palaces and churches and convents