The purest literary talent appears at one time great, at another time small, but
character is of a stellar and undiminishable greatness.
A chef d'oeuvre of that kind of quiet evolution of
character through circumstance, introduced into English literature by Miss Austen, and carried to perfection in France by George Sand (who is more to the point, because, like Mrs.
Besides this, I observed that the men made no scruple to set themselves out, and to go a-fortunehunting, as they call it, when they had really no fortune themselves to demand it, or merit to deserve it; and that they carried it so high, that a woman was scarce allowed to inquire after the
character or estate of the person that pretended to her.
