His works, as they stand, are probably the exact
measure of his strength.
We do not mean that he has exhausted his strength. It seems to be the
prime quality of such a genius as Mr. Trollope's that it is exempt from
accident,--that it accumulates, rather than loses force with age. Mr.
Trollope's work is simple observation. He is secure, therefore, as long
as he retains this faculty. And his observation is the more efficient
that it is hampered by no concomitant purpose, rooted to no underlying
beliefs or desires. It is firmly anchored, but above-ground. We have
often heard Mr. Trollope compared with Thackeray,--but never without
resenting the comparison. In no point are they more dissimilar than in
the above. Thackeray is a moralist, a satirist; he tells his story for
its lesson: whereas Mr. Trollope tells his story wholly for its own
sake. Thackeray is almost as much a preacher as he is a novelist; while
Mr. Trollope is the latter simply. Both writers are humorists, which
seems to be the inevitable mood of all shrewd observers; and both
incline to what is called quiet humor.
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