Reade has treated them with
undeniable frankness and sincerity. Mercy Vint alone seems to belong to
a better time; but then goodness and purity are the contemporaries of
every generation, and, besides, Mercy Vint's puritan character is an
exceptional phase of the life of the time. It is admirable to see in
this fiction, as we often see in the world, how wise and refined
religion makes an ignorant and lowly-bred person. As a retrospective
study, Griffith Gaunt cannot be placed below Henry Esmond. As a study of
passions and principles that do not change with civilizations, it is
even more excellent. Griffith Gaunt himself is the most perfect figure
in the book, because the plot does not at any period interfere with his
growth. We start with a knowledge of the frankness and generosity native
to a somewhat coarse texture of mind, and we readily perceive why a
nature so prone to love and wrath should fall a helpless prey to
jealousy, which is a thing altogether different from the suspicion of
ungenerous spirits. It is jealousy which drives Griffith to deceive
Mercy Vint, for even his desolation and his need of her consoling care
cannot bring him to it, and it is only when his triumphing rival appears
that this frank and kindly soul consents to enact a cruel lie.
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