It might have been added, that to those whose experience of men and manners is neither extensive nor various, the construction of a self-consistent monster is easier than the delineation of an imperfect or inconsistent reality--with all its fallings-short, its fitful aspirations, its mixed enterprises, and its interrupted dreams. But we must refrain from further speculation and illustration:--enough having been given to justify our characterizing this volume, with its preface, as a more than usually interesting contribution to the history of female authorship in England. Pertinently of these biographies, the _Athenaeum_ remarks that "some of the most daring and original have owed their parentage, not to defying _Britomarts_, at war with society, who choose to make their literature match with their lives,--not to brilliant women figuring in the world, in whom every gift and faculty has been enriched, and whetted sharp, and encouraged into creative utterance, by perpetual communication with the most distinguished men of the time,--but to writers living retired lives in retired places, stimulated to activity by no outward influence, driven to confession by no history that demands apologetic parable or subtle plea." FOOTNOTES: [13] _Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey._ By Ellis and Acton Bell. A new Edition Revised, with a Biographical Notice of the Authors, a Selection from their Literary Remains, and a Preface. By Currer Bell. Smith, Elder & Co. DAVIS ON THE LAST HALF CENTURY.[14] ETHERIZATION.