Charles Dickens was pre-eminently the novelist of the law, and his lawyers have a hold upon the public imagination far surpassing that of any other author. Dickens method is not the common one of unreasoning denunciation of a class. He knew better than to represent all lawyers as rogues, for he had the advantage of knowing the legal profession from the inside. He never lays down bad law, and he never credits a member of the legal profession with impossible professional conduct.