CHAPTER XLIV.
in which the last words of the last chapter are made the text of discourse, which will be sure of receiving more or less attention from those readers who do not skip it.
"Quite an Original:" A phrase, we fancy, rather
oftener used by the young, or the unlearned, or the untraveled, than by the old, or the well-read, or the man
who has made the grand tour. Certainly, the sense of
originality exists at its highest in an infant, and probably at its lowest in him who has completed the circle of the sciences.
As for original characters in fiction, a grateful reader will, on meeting with one, keep the anniversary of that day. True, we sometimes hear of an author who, at one creation, produces some two or three score such characters; it may be possible. But they can hardly be original in the sense that Hamlet is, or Don Quixote, or Milton's Satan. That is to say, they are not, in a thorough sense, original at all. They are novel, or singular, or striking, or captivating, or all four at once.
More likely, they are what are called odd characters; but for that, are no more original, than what is called
