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*052 THE LEADER. _____ [Saturday,
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Three Novels. Ethel; Or, The Double Erro...
our farewell of Ethel "—only recommending the writer , when she makes her next effort , not to tell a too uniformly mournful story , and not to forget that—in Literature as in Painting—the study of Nature is the first great requisite for the attainment of all excellence in Art . Mrs . Webb has tried a bold experiment . She has laid the scene of her story in Egypt , and has chosen for its period the time of the Jewish deliverance from bondage . Sacredly squeamish people , who shrink at the notion of Scriptural characters and events "being introduced in uninspired writings , need not be afraid of opening Mrs . Webb ' s volume . She treats her subject in a spirit of perfect reverence , and avoids even the shadow of a dangerous Biblical allusion with great tact and delicacy . The literary fault of tie story is want of dramatic power—a defect on which we have no desire to bear hardly , as we believe it to be natural and irremediable . The story-telling faculty is , as we think , one of the "born faculties ; " and Mrs . Webb does not
possess it . On the other hand , she has thorough acquaintance with all the necessary antiquarian parts of her subject . Manners and customs in Ancient Egypt are cleverly and interestingly interwoven with the story ; and we can with perfect honesty recommend Idaline as a book from which mucb may be learnt , easily and pleasantly , by all readers who cannot be induced to apply themselves in their leisure hours to professedly instructive books . Our third novel is from America , and is an attempt to depict scenes and personages in Yirginia tea years before the Revolution . We have found the book , with great pretension of design and prodigious elaboration of execution , one of the most tedious to read that we have encountered for
many a long day past . The pursuit and persecution of a virtuous actress by a heartless fine gentlemaa—scenes of moral indignation on the one side , and of vicious assiduity on the other , repeated again , and again with hardly any variation , form the main interest of the first volume—beyond which we have failed altogether to proceed . The quantity of trivial dialogue in the story / minutely cut up into single sentences arid single words , distributed over page after page , producing no recognisable development of character , and adding nothing , or next to nothing , to the progress of the story , fairly / weaned us out by the time -we had got half through the book . The second volume may be the best , and we gladly give the author " the benefit of the doubt . " Judging by the first , Virginia Comedians Las not given us a very exalted idea of what Young America is capable of doing in the way of historical fiction . Befpie closing the present notice , we may be permitted to acknowledge the receipt of three reprinted novels which require no special recommendation from us . They are , Mr . James ' s Russell , and Mr . Cooper ' s Oak Openings arid Deerslayer . These books have passed through the ordeal of criticism , and when -we have announced them we have done enough .
*052 The Leader. _____ [Saturday,
* 052 THE LEADER . _____ [ Saturday ,
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E Should Do Our -Utmost To Encourage The...
e should do our -utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourage * itself . —GoETUB .
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Tfi ? S * ? Wi 3 T * J * i IT ? 9 fc 4 V flfl » Sflf iii * rl iHr i & i iSS < Ui im && a * « JK « IV . CONTCLTJSIOK * . ^^® IMPLE and uniform as tie honey of the hon eymoon may be in its £ & Sp > nature , yet so tyrannical are circumstances , that perhaps there is no Ife 2 § iP day in men ' s lives more various in its sensations than the -wedding & f |^ a day ; and few could have plunged into its most unmitigated severities @^'< rG > with more despondency than Mr . Dutton . He had , by a wonderful exercise of patient art , persuaded bis Amy that under all circumstances a plain wedding , an unobtrusive , a confidential wedding , would be the most appropriate ; he had accomplished the church service without observation , evaded a parental breakfast , and got back to his own quiet house with triumphant quietude . Exhausted by weeks of manoeuvring , he had at last reached the haven , and was just beginning to dread a long day of Amy's modest fondness , when a blessed interruption came—blessed as tan interruption , until the servant announced the awful visitation of " Mr . Jarrett . "
In his perturbation of mind , Dutton had brought away with him that experimental five-pound note , and had ever since been turning over in his mind the best mode of r-ostoring- it , until , at last , he had resolved , when all should be safe , to return it through Amy to Smith . Of four weeks no small fraction had been passed in proving to his own mind the historical fact that he was not a thief ; and now one of Jarrett's coarse and ill-timed intrusions blew to the winds his whole schexao for getting rid of that infected note . " Do not go , Mr . Dutton , " cried Jarrett , in a tone of unexpected kindness ; " my visit is to both of you . I thought I would not call too soon , M rs . Dutton , although I was anxious to make the communication to you which I am commissioned . "
Amy bowed , wondering whnfc the man could call too soon . She had learned to hate Mr . Jarrett for his ingratitude to Dutton . ?* I would not intrude on bliss , you know , during tho month ; but as soon nftor , Mrs . Dutton , as possible . Mr . Smith has felt , Mrs . Dutton , that his conduct , and especiall y in regard to a young lady , a very amiable young lady , who is now residing under my roof , must have been open to some misconstruction ; he has wished , ma ' am , that , however circumstances may huve altered , you should not , at « ll events , do him , ho said , —and let mo add yourself too , Mrs . Button , —an injustice ; and ho has selected myself , as an old friend , to be tho medium of a friondly communication . And although Mr . Dutton has no curiosity in this matter ' f ^ ' is that affectation , " thought Dutton , *' or wns I really unobserved V ] , " » t will be quite proper that he Bhould be present . I shall not detain you long , sir . " And Jarrott proceeded to toll the story of his new partner ' s " fniv Italian . " It had always been John Smithes habit to take long country walks . In a quiob town life , with limited means , with no tastes that lod him into " fust " society , it was almost his only resource for tasting something of tho energy Seo Lc < u (« r , Nos . 234 , 235 , 240 .
of existence . Love itself had failed him , for Amy's prudence and mamma had prevented their marrying early ; her prudence and mamma had imposed suitable restraints on their courtship ; and as time drifted on towards promotion in business and settlement in life , Amy acquired the placid sedateness of married condition . She was unconscious of the stormy life which visited John like dreams in a winter ' s evening—stormy gusts of thought which he hardly regarded as belonging to real life , and which were best harmonised and soothed by Iris long walks alone , where misconception , expressions unanswered , or thoughts halting short of his own , could not shock him ; but where the broad naked moon or the sweeping wind gave him stark glaring truth for truth , and vehemence for vehemence , while his well-tried muscles won repose .
One mght he was returning towards town from Dorking , and crossing by the foot-path which cut off an angle on the road between I . eatherhead and Ashted . As he neared the brow of the rising ground , an unwonted figure caught his sight . Seated on a low stone was a woman ; when he came near he saw from the gentle motion of her shoulders that she was weeping ; and as the sound of his step caught her ear , she turned towards him a face beautiful , pale , bathed in tears , and too desolate to alter with alarm at being surprised in that desolate place . He had fancied , and now felt sure , that just before he came up a man's figure had left the spot , and at first he supposed it some lover ' s quarrel . The lady let her face fall into her hands again , and as if unconscious of his presence , or supposing hiui gone by , gave way to the quiet , even sobbing which he had interrupted . He had often seen tears before , but never so pitiful a desolation as that ; and he would not go . Some time , he waited , in expectation that the lady ' s grief would
abate * —in vain , and then , in as gentle and respectful a manner as he could , he asked her if he could be of any use to her in her trouble . And her cold , pale look told "him that he was but half understood ; and he repeated his question . He had to wait some time for an answer , and then , by degrees only , he wrung from , her that she had just been left , she hoped tov ever , by the only person she knew in the whole country . As her grief subsided , the weariness and the cold brought on a faint weakness , and she leaned for a time , unconscious , against John's shoulder . Something g listening on her hand slipped down upon her finger , and John found that it was a , ring . It must always have been too loose for her , but now the cold had made it niore so . He took it off for safe keeping . Even when she recovered consciousness , she was still bewildered and feeble . Of course he would not leave her ; of course lie took her to shelter , which he found at a small inn near ; and ultimately he learned her whole story .
Mr . and Mrs . Dutton breathed aloud when Jarrett came to this part of the tale . Amy looked a remark that if people wandered about at nights , instead of stopping quietly at home , they would naturally fall in with strange women on desolate downs , and get involved in ti-ouble . " That , " said Jarrett , interrupting himself , "is now nearly a year ago , and it is but lately that even Mr . Smith has learned all the particulars . " The lady might -well feel desolate . She had been left by the only person she knew , and it was her desolation that to be left by him , whom she had trusted , was ; a release . To say so , is to anticipate ; but how much at the beginning of every story presses for utterance . Events happen in succession , but the feelings that they create crowd upon the consciousness at once . The lady was the daughter of an English gentleman living apart from his family , why , lie never explained , and his daughter never knew . It was surmised that Iris family had treaiwd him unjustly , and that he had retreated into a misanthropical solitude at Florence . Stanhope was evidently not his
real name , and some circumstances'indicated that he was of high family . Such men , evading family quarrels , commissions de lunatico , genealogical investigations , and other harsh trials , are not solitary on the Continent . His daughter was placed for education in a convent ; and if she was brought up in the hereditary faith of old English families avIio are not renegade converts to the heresy of Luther , the conversation of her father corrected every trace of bigotry ; and the religion of love which found its borne in the young bosom of Speranza , was fit to pillow itself on her gentle heart "beside the love for her father . His sudden death left her at nineteen to the guardianship of a good old ecclesiastic whom tho father had chosen as her best protector against confiscation of her modest property to a degenerate church ; and under the wise and truly liberal care of this accomplished gentleman , she remained in tlie convent , occasionally brought forth to extend well selected friendships among the English ; for England , said the good Abb ate , was to be her home .
But fair Florence has not been unvisited by the demon of the Low Church , and even Speranza could not escape . She was seen by a young man , of Irish extraction , whose frionds had destined him to a cardinalship at least . For his own part ho preferred a shorter cut to distinction—and he only wavered between the stage , which tickled his ambition enormously for its opportunities of personal display , and an English mission as a convert to Protestantism — almost equally tempting . A few titled natrons , a little " assistance" with money , and many vague promises induacd him to give up to England what was destined for the stage . An Irishman with dark glossy curling hair , faultless features , a sad Italian eye , a slight brogue , and a mint Italian accent , he- had the field of Protestantism , mission and society boforo him . Tho spiritual Deucalion only wanted a Pyrrha , and Spomnza exactl y suited him . He was young but not nrtlesa ; she was both ; smd in si abort time she was convinced that ho adored her , that she wua to bo a victim to the all-devouring Church—a doomed nun—no nun is over seen in Florence now that is not hideous— -a
pensioned pauper ; while love , freedom , and a purer religion awiuted her xn England . Thaddeus was " assisted" by virtuous evangelical frionds , and Spcranzu eloped . Never did young womanhood run a moro rapid careor of enlightenment than in that voyage to Kngland . Not-that he seduced her-y he was not bad nor bold enough for that . Ho did not intend to risk his game in that way . Ho only indulged his passion enough to win her affection , and to draw her modestly into his arms—which he did . And she riimomborod it afterwards . But tho voyage to EngUnd , and their first dwelling there , oufllcod to teach her what ho was , what threatened her . Sh « discovered—it was so thickly , grossly palpable , that love itself could not
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 4, 1854, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04111854/page/20/
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