"He belongs to the historical school of fiction, and, like the masters of the art, takes up a real person or a real event, and, pursuing the course of history, makes out the intentions of nature by adding circumstances and heightening character, till, like a statue in the hands of the sculptor, the whole is in fair proportion, truth of sentiment, and character. For this he has high qualities,--an excellent taste, extensive knowledge of history, a right feeling of the chivalrous, and a heroic and a ready eye for the picturesque: his proprieties are admirable; his sympathy with whatever is high-souled and noble is deep and impressive. His best works are Richelieu and Mary of Burgundy."--ALLAN CUNNINGHAM: _Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the Last Fifty Years, 1833._ The critic next to be quoted, whilst coinciding in the objections prominently urged against Mr. James as an author,--repetition, tediousness, and deficiency of terseness,--yet urges on his behalf that "There is a constant appeal in his brilliant pages not only to the pure and generous, but to the elevated and noble sentiments; he is imbued with the very soul of chivalry; and all his stories turn on the final triumph of those who are influenced by such feelings over such as are swayed by selfish or base desires. He possesses great pictorial powers, and a remarkable facility of turning his graphic pen at will to the delineation of the most distant and opposite scenes, manners, and social customs.... Not a word or a thought which can give pain to the purest heart ever escapes from his pen; and the mind wearied with the cares and grieved at the selfishness of the world reverts with pleasure to his varied compositions, which carry it back, as it were, to former days, and portray, perhaps in too brilliant colors, the ideas and manners of the olden time."--SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON: _Hist. of Europe,_ 1815-52, chap, v., 1853. See also _Alison's Essays,_ 1850, iii. 545-546; _North British Review,_ Feb. 1857, art on Modern Style. Prefatory Dedication. TO GUSTAVUS A. MYERS, ESQ. MY DEAR SIR:--