The recognition of her high qualities was not so extended in her life-time, as it is now; and thirty years after her death, a visitor to the great Hampshire Cathedral was asked by the respectable verger: "What there was _particular_ about Miss Austen, that so many people should want to see her grave?" Even the most wooden of vergers would hardly ask the question now; her extraordinary quickness and justness of observation astonish every intelligent reader. All the more, since her life was lived within narrow lines; but what she saw, she saw true, and she remembered. That wonderful masterly Shakespearian alertness of mind in seizing upon traits and retaining their relations and colors, is what distinguishes her, as it distinguishes every kindred genius. I can understand how many people cannot overmuch relish the stories of Miss Austen--because they do not relish the people to whom she introduces us; but I cannot understand how any reader can fail to be {271} impressed and electrified by her marvellous photographic reproduction of social shades of conduct. How delightful is that indignation of Sir John Middleton, when he learns of the villainy and falsity of Willoughby. "To think of it! and he had offered the scoundrel one of Follies' puppies!" And then--reflectively--"A pretty man he was too, and owner of one of the finest pointer bitches in England! The devil take him!" What a synopsis of the man's qualities, and of Sir John's measurement of them! _Old Juvenilia._ [Sidenote: Sandford & Merton.] I cannot pass from this epoch, without saying somewhat concerning that tide of literature for young people which set in strongly about those times. There was _Sandford and Merton_, for instance; can it be that the moderns are growing up to maturity without a knowledge of the wise inculcations of that eminently respectable work? Sixty years ago it was a stunning book for all good boys, and for the good sisters of good boys. Whoever was at the head of his class was pretty apt to {272} get _Sandford and Merton_; whoever had a birthday present was very likely to get _Sandford and Merton_; if a good aunt was in search of a proper New Year's gift for a lad the bookseller was almost sure to recommend _Sandford and Merton_; and when a boy went away to school, some considerate friend was very certain to pop a copy of _Sandford and Merton_ into his satchel.