Even in _Pickwick_ the expert will trace suggestions from others.

But if the work is read in its proper order, and the _Sketches by Boz_ are taken first, nobody who knows both Leigh Hunt and Theodore Hook will fail to see that Dickens owed a great deal to both.

The fact is in no sense discreditable to him: on the contrary, it adds, in the estimation of all reasonable and critical judges, a very great deal of interest, and takes away none.

The earth-born prodigy is seldom good for much and never for very much.

The genius who fastens on the points in preceding literature most congenial to him, develops them, builds on them with his own matter and form, and turns out something far greater than his originals is the really satisfactory person.