text:  But admitting all this the question is--have these productions come up to the true standard of novel-writing? Are they fitted to elevate and purify the minds of their readers? Will the persons who peruse and are amused perhaps fascinated by them become more noble more exalted more spiritual beings than they were before? Do not these novels able and amusing as they are bear the same relation to the lofty romances of which our literature can boast that the Boors of Ostade or the Village Wakes of Teniers do to the Madonnas of Guido or the Holy Families of Raphael? These pictures were and are exceedingly popular in Flanders and Holland where their graphic truth could be appreciated; but are they ever regarded as models of the really beautiful in painting? We leave it to the most ardent admirers of the Jack Sheppard school to answer these questions