Essays and Miscellaneous Papers

THE histories of real life, like the plots of the drama, are apt to increase in fervour of action and multiplicity of incident as they draw near the term of their appointed course. Their fifth act is generally busier than all the preceding put together. Events come thickly and almost jostle one another; partly from the natural effect of contact, partly through the operation of some hidden law of sympathy which produces a coincidence of results without any apparent concatenation of causes or community of motives.