Still  even  in  a  rank  of  life  from  which  one  would  imagine
brutality  to  be  precluded  by  education,  cases  of  disgraceful
violence  are  but  too  common.  A  glance  at  any  London  daily
in  the  column  devoted  to  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the
Divorce  Court  will  convince  any  one  of  the  truth  of  this  as-
sertion. We  read  but  too  frequently  of  delicate  women  being
subjected  to  the  unjustifiable  violence  of  those  whose  duty  it
should  be  to  protect  them ;  of  cases  where  the  violence  is  not
the  result  of  a  sudden  outburst  of  ungovernable  passion,  but
the  climax  to  a  long  steady  course  of  ill-treatment,  the  outcome
of  an  unquenchable  hatred.  For  cases  like  this  it  is  difficult  to
account,  but  that  they  do  occur  is  indisputable.  A  case  of  this
nature  has  been  inimitably  described  by  that  great  master,
Charles  Dickens,  whom  we  who  gain  our  livelihood  by  the
pen  will  always  regard  as  little  short  of  a  demi-god,  in  his
description  of  the  marital  relations  between  Jonas  Chuzzlewit
the  younger  and  his  wife.  His  description  of  the  scene  where
the  ruffian,  on  his  return  from  a  dinner  party,  and  flushed  with
wine,  strikes  his  unoffending  wife,  is  probably  as  fine  a  page  as
any  in  his  writings.  The  manner  in  which  the  consistent
vindictiveness  and  meanness  of  the  repulsive  scoundrel  are
elaborated  is  a  supreme  effort  of  art,  and  its  minute  ex-
amination into  the  worst  traits  of  a  thoroughly  bad  man
show 8  the  miraculous  insight  of  the  master  into  human
nature.
