Watched by the Dead.

CHAPTER I.

DICKENS'S FAVOURITE THEME.

It has been said by Wendell Holmes that every

man has in him one manage to write it.

good novel, if he could but Most of us leave our novel

carefully unwritten. But it has not yet been noticed, I think, that even those novelists whose variety of conception has been regarded as their most remarkable quality have usually had one favourite idea, which reappears again and again, even in the texture of works otherwise most varied in structure.

For example, even Sir Walter Scott has his favourite theme, which sometimes is the chief feature of the story, at other times occupies quite a subordinate position, but is nearly always present in one form or another. Scott's favourite idea, brought in so often that but for his marvellous skill in clothing it in ever-varying garb it would have become wearisome, is to present the youthful hero of his plot as a young and inexperienced man, treated by the older characters as little more than a boy, often their unconscious agent in important political plots, occasionally looked down upon by the heroine herself (who knows more of such plans and takes a more leading part in carrying them out than the hero of the story), but showing himself worthier, or at least manlier, than his elders had imagined him to be.

Scott has not always, perhaps, contented us with his hero; often another character is more interesting, as Fergus than Waverley, Bois Guilbert than Ivanhoe, Evandale than Morton; possibly because all Scott's heroes show the peculiarity we have described. In Edward Waverley we have the original of the type. In

"Guy Mannering Harry Bertram never shakes off the manner of a very young man, whether with Meg Merrilies, the Dominie, Mr. Pleydell, or Colonel Mannering. Frank Osbaldistone, in "Rob Roy," treated by his father as a mere boy, is afterwards a mere tool in the hands of older men. Even Die Vernon treats him till near the end as but an inexperienced lad. Lovell, in "The Antiquary," plays a similar part, alike with Monkbarns, with the Baronet, and with old Edie Ochiltree, and remains to the end unconscious of his real position, in regard both to his putative father and to Earl Geraldine. In "Redgauntlet "-the plot of which, by the way, is not very interestingwe find Darsie Latimer similarly situated, and unconsciously taking part in a dangerous political plot. Alan Fairford holds a kindred position.

The hero of "The Black Dwarf" is still more cavalierly treated, insomuch that no one, I imagine, takes the least interest in him. Young Arthur, in "Anne of Geierstein," is a puppet in his father's hands to the end.

The scenes between Quentin Durward and Louis XI. illustrate well Scott's favourite theme.

But Durward is also treated as a mere boy by Le Belafré, by Earl Crawford, and by Charles of Burgundy; we note, too, that he is entirely unconscious of the part he is really playing in the journey to Liége.

Ivanhoe is under Cedric's high displeasure till near the end of the story, and is as boyish a hero as Quentin Durward, despite the bravery they both show in the saddle. Henry Morton, with his uncle, with Dame Wilson, and afterwards with Balfour of Burley; Halbert Glendinning, with the monks; Julian Avenel with Lady Avenel, and afterwards with Queen Mary and Catharine Seyton; Harry Gow (and Conachar) with Simon; Edgar Ravenswood with the elder Ashton and Caleb Balderstone; Tressilian, in "Kenilworth"; Monteith, in "The Legend of Montrose"; Merton, in "The Pirate" (with old Mordaunt, with Norna of the Fitful Head, and even with Minna and Brenda, and their father); all these are samples of Sir Walter Scott's favourite theme. It is the same with Damian in "The Betrothed"; with the Varangian, in "Count Robert of Paris"; with young Nigel in "The Fortunes of Nigel"; with

Julian, in "Peveril of the Peak"; and with the Knight of the Leopard, in "The Talisman.”

Only one exception, and that rather apparent than real, can be mentioned-the "Heart of Midlothian," perhaps the finest of all Scott's novels: but this is a novel without a hero, or, rather, Jeanie Deans is both hero and heroine (for Reuben Butler can scarcely be considered a hero). Now, strangely enough, Jeanie, thus taking a double part, womanlike in her patience and goodness, manlike in her endurance and courage, illustrates Scott's pet theme (as obviously as Edward Waverley or Frank Osbaldistone) in the scenes with Staunton and Staunton's father, with the Duke of Argyll and Queen Caroline-nay, even with Madge Wildfire.

Dickens a writer of another type, had also his favourite theme. So far as I know, the point has not yet been noticed; but I think there can be no doubt that one special idea had more attraction for him than any other, and seemed to him the most effective leading idea for a plot.

The idea which more than any other had a