He adds,--“although we cannot claim for it the merit of that matchless production, still, regarding it as a work of a very young man, it is to our thinking one of infinite promise.” [118] Perhaps pardon should be asked on behalf of the irresponsible Circumstance which allowed so large a preponderance in this matter to the sex notoriously romantic, flighty, ignorant of real life, and impatient of its prose and drudgery. As to the one man, Bryce remarks, in his _Studies in Contemporary Biography_, “But whoever does read Trollope in 1930 will gather from his pages better than from any others an impression of what everyday life was like in England in the ‘middle Victorian’ period.” [119] _Ernest Maltravers_, 32. Cf. _How It Strikes a Contemporary_. [120] These types may be summarized for convenience in a topical outline: I. Direct. II. Dramatic. 1. Situation. 2. Character. a. Witty protagonists. db. Comical antagonists. [121] Trollope: _Ralph the Heir_, 275. [122] _Ibid._, 275–276. [123] _The Bertrams_, 150. [124] _Vanity Fair_, I, 225. [125] _Vanity Fair_, I, 396. In Chapter XIX occurs the remark, “Perhaps in Vanity Fair there are no better satires than letters.” [126] _Ibid._, I, 214. [127] _Ibid._, I, 233. [128] _Vanity Fair_, II, 304. [129] Among countless such gems, the following is of purest ray serene: “Oh, be humble, my brother, in your prosperity! Be gentle with those who are less lucky, if not more deserving. Think, what right have you to be scornful, whose virtue is a deficiency of temptation, whose success may be a chance, whose rank may be an ancestor’s accident, whose prosperity is very likely a satire.” _Vanity Fair_, II, 43. [130] _Pendennis_, II, 53. The introductory chapter of _The Newcomes_ needs only to be recalled as an instance of the satirical fable. Nor is the beginning of _Henry Esmond_ lacking in the satirical tone. [131] _Oliver Twist_, 350. The idea was possibly suggested by _Sartor Resartus_. [132] _Nicholas Nickleby_, I, 286. This thrust is aimed especially at _Paul Clifford_. [133] _Barnaby Rudge_, I, 296. [134] _Bleak House_, 553. [135] _Little Dorrit_, I, 139. [136] Cf. his description of one of his favorite characters, Nesta Radnor,--“what she did, she intended to do.” [137] _Beauchamp’s Career_, 2, 3, 4. [138] _Beauchamp’s Career_, 6. [139] _The Egoist_, 132. Later he indicates the corollary of this,-- “But not many men are trained to courage; young women are trained to cowardice. For them to front an evil with plain speaking is to be guilty of effrontery and forfeit the waxen polish of purity, and therewith their commanding place in the market.” _Ibid._, 296.