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452 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ma...
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THE BANKER OF FLORENCE.* ALL that can be...
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SERIALS. rilUE North British Quarterly f...
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* Filippo Stroeeit a History of tho Zast...
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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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Habits And Their Weakness.* Mtjstg1lpin,...
stances where an unlooked-for-event has turned the whole current of life , arid it would he no more difficult to produce examples of an opposite kind , Where , instead of being from bad to good , the change has been from virtue and strength to vice and weakness . But perhaps it may he said that our position will only hold with regard to those of the hero-class , and is not true of that large multitude who
are " Content to cbrell in decencies for ever . " But even here , amongst respectable citizens , and in the commercial world , an exaggerated strength is generally attributed to habit , and ¦ what was supposed to be a rigid morality which nothing could disturb , very frequently proves a mere custom not founded on principle , and which a slight blast from without suffices to throw totally put of its equilibrium . A comely matron has lived for twenty years in the laudable discharge of the duties of her position , when a faseinating young curate , irresistible in an immaculate tie , high waistcoat , long coat , cadaverous visage , and absence of shirt-collar , enters
upon the scene , and within two months the ci-devant Cornelia elopes . A lad of one-ahd-twenty , clever , conscientious , and setting out with a fair budget of good resolutions ^ goes to Oxford , and before the end of his second term has forgotten all the power of youthful associations , looks upon life as a sham , and has begun to act accordingly . The sober-minded Brown strolls down St . . Jameses some fine afternoon , and accidentally meeting the gay Robinson , is invited to dine and meet one or two capital fellows ; and before he goes to bed that night , Brown has acquired three or four hundred pounds and a taste for gambling , which in a few years lands him on the salubrious shores of Boulogne . But everybody can call to mind a dozen cases illustrative of what we mean , where habits
apparently inveterate and immovable as a mountain ^ have , upon what would seem trivial temptation , " melted into air , into thin air . . ¦ - . This is the moral of the novel before us , " The Life of Pleasure , ' and it is shown in a two-fold aspect—a debauchee becomes a pattern off virtue , and a man of upright morality degenerates into a mei'e wreck . As the latter change is less . frequent in actual life , its credibility is enforced by additional elaboration in the development . A prosperous tradesman , M , BremoncL is a man of high commercial integrity , no less than of domestic virtue ; in the relations of trade and of the family , he is equally ifreproachable . With an excellent wife and two children , a son and a daughter , his life would seem to
be as enviable as mortal lot can be , blessed with external prosperity and peaceful happiness within . M . Bremond , with the natural ambition of raising the & mily name , made his son a barrister , an < l at this point the story begins . This son takes advantage of his new independence to taste thV pleasures of the French capital , and soon becomes involved in an intrigue , which ends in a duel with a colonel of Zouaves , and the unfortunate youth is killed . This terrible catastrophe has such an effect on his mother that she becomes insane , and [ dependent almost for her very existence on the incessant devotion of her daughter . The unhappy father , whose life is entirely paralyzed by this accumulation of calamities , driven away from all his old habits , which might have been thought a part of
himself , betakes himself to the cafe" for consolation , and the even ^ ingiff ^ lfrclr ^ vereHp > n ^ devoted to play . On one occasion , shortly after the commencement of his distress , he heard of a young girl who , though pressed by want , would not yield to the temptations of a rich seducer ; lie first of all sent her money anonymously , and afterwards had an interview with her , succeeded by many others , until at last the unfortunate merchant became the victim of a fatal passion for her whom he had generously saved . To this , however , Paulina did not respond , for sh « herself was desperately enamoured of one Julian Martel , who was then the cashier of M . Bremond , and with whom she had teen slightly acquainted in earlier days . Julian
Martel hnd come to Paris when a young man , and had very speedily thrown away a handsome patrimony in licentiousness and dissipation . Having spent his lost franc , he was obliged to seek employment in some humble sphere , and he became the cashier of M , Br 6 mond , in which situation he showed that the profligate rout may desist from bis wallowing in the mire , and turn a diligent and conscientious worker j and upon him now almost entirely depended the thriving business which his employer had begun to neglect . Paulina , discovering that Julian Martel regarded her with indifference , and that he was in love with his master ' s daughter , determined uppn a dire revenge , and yielding to the passionate solicitations of the infatuated Br ^ mond , she launches him upon a career of wild extravagance , which destroys the solvency of his firm . _ At length , Martel , discerning the motive which prompted the amiable
Paulina , came to on agreement with her that , on condition she would never again see Bre ' mond , he would leave his present situation and abandon the family to which he was so much indebted , without disclosing to Ldonie , his master's daughter , the true reason of his departure , and leaving her to believoit to have been prompted by a selfish desire of aggrandizement . This is the culminating point of the story : the steady sober tradesman metamorphosed into the degraded slave of a courtesan , and the dissipated spendthrift become frugal and self-sacrificing . All that follows is highly wrought up , and abounds in exciting and well-told incident , but it is needless to introduce it here , and it suffices to say that eventually Julian marries Le ' onie , and M . Bremond remains till his death a miserable wreck , whilst Paulina , his bad angel , finds her way to South America . To many , perhaps , this may appear an exaggerated idea and an Impossible plot ; but , after all , what is there impossible or even improbable about it P Good , habits , however deeply rooted , pro still
only implanted , and any change of soil , that is , any movement of surrounding circumstances , can scarcely take place , in ever so small a degree , without harm to the growth ; and there is many a man now enjoying high reputation for temperance and rectitude , and many a woman whom her neighbours extol as a pattern of maternal or conjugal duty , either of whom an accidental event might divert utterly and for ever from a path which they do not pursue on principle , but because chance or fate has set them in it . In very few instances are the various actions of life made matter of sober and
conscientious reasoning , or deduced from carefully weighed principles ; and when this is so , let no man hope that the conduct and habits of years are so . firm as to resist the events of a single day , if those events happen to come in a certain direction . "Where either morality or immorality is rather the result of usage than reflection , it is not good to calculate upon the continuance of one or the other . Somebody has admirably observed that the chapter of accidents is the bible of the fool , but even a wise man needs all possible circumspection to avoid the maelstrom of circumstances , and few attain the fulfilment of the Horatian desire , — " Mihi res , non me rebus Bubjungere conor . "
452 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ma...
452 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ May 12 , I 860 ,
The Banker Of Florence.* All That Can Be...
THE BANKER OF FLORENCE . * ALL that can bear in any way on the subject of Italy , whether past , present , or future , is now received with so much favour , that Mr . Adolphus Trollope needs no apology for retracing ground already gone over in former works , in order to give a more innerlife view of the state of the country and the interests and characters of individuals and classes of the latter . The biography of " Filippo Strozzi" is fertile in materials for interpretation . The biographer does not , and could not , present his hero as the exemplar of man in the abstract , but exhibits him as a class-man—for instance , as the " Banker of Florence . " The difference between the two ^ is all the space between the Socratic m-an , and that which the Sophists taught the Athenian youth to become . From his boyhood we find Filippo Strozzi preparing himself for his future career , and are introduced
into the very imperfect state of societynn accordance with which he had been educated . The democratic republic in which he was born had the oddest notions of freedom ; and , instead of leaving each man free to conduct his life and business as he mig ht , claimed the right of interfering with him in his nearest and dearesMnterests . It was dkngerous to be considered too jich , and private safety was sacrificed to misconceived public relations in a manner that led to the greatest individual injustice . Strozzi had occasion for all the prudence , wonderful as it was , that lie possessed , to steer clear of the many shoals and quicksands that then beset the rich merchant in his voyage through life . And this is the point of view in which his history may be best studied . Mr . Trollope has described the difficulties of the position of this
extraordinary man in one illustrative sentence . "The entire life , ' says he , ¦ .. " of this cautious statesman and financier may be characterized as a continuous walk upon a political tight-rope , with everpresent danger of falling on one side or the other / ' The biographer ia'Cftlled ^ n-to-malie-this-r ^ markjust 4 ifieiu : ecoiuJiiigLthe-sacJeoiJ . ioJiie by the Constable Bourbon , and the state into which Florence was consequently thrown . He then proceeds to celebrate the cautious wisdom which Strozzi evinced on the occasion . The richest man in Florence , he was also recognised as the " master of the situation , " and all parties applied to him for help and counsel in a great crisis ; but ultimately his history shows that there is a wisdom higher than prudence ;—accordingly we find him , after all his twistings and turnings , " a prisoner in that fortress for the building of which he had furnished the funds . " That so great a capitalist as Strozzi should
suffer the common fate of his fellow rebels and conspirators seems to have revolted the spirit of the age in which he lived . It was , indeed , a subject of European interest ; so little was then the revolutionary doctrine of equality appreciated . Even Pope Paul III . pleaded for him to the Emperor Charles V ., on the ground of his wealth , not of his worth . We may learn from his story how much of the evil that poor humanity endures results from mammonworship . This hierophant in the temple of the sordid god died in prison , as stated by the authorities , by his own hands;—perhaps , lie was murdered . He had survived torture , and amused his gaol hours with literary composition , so that he was not without fortitude or mental resources . Be that as it may , no story cau be more full of moral interest than that of his life , as told in the eloquent volume before us , for the stirring and commercial age in which we live .
Serials. Rilue North British Quarterly F...
SERIALS . rilUE North British Quarterly for May contains several highly •*• elaborate and powerfully written articles . " Bedding ' s Reminiscences— -Thomas Campbell" will , we are sure , be read with pleasure and profit . " Quakerism , Past and Present , " is an article that presents a subject which is somewhat dry and obsolete in an interesting aspect nnd form . The article which follows , on " Sir Henry Lawrence , " contains much tliat is valuable on India . " Australian Ethnology " is an intelligent article upon an important branch of knowledge . " Church and State , " which is one of the best articles in the present number , will be generally interesting . " The Origin of Species , " "British Lighthouses , " and "The State of Europe , "
* Filippo Stroeeit A History Of Tho Zast...
* Filippo Stroeeit a History of tho Zast Days of the Old Italian Liberty , By T . ADox . ruus Trolloph . Chapman and Hall .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051860/page/16/
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