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November 19, 1853] THE LEADER. 1123
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MARGARET. Margaret; or, Prejudice at Som...
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We should do cur utmost to encourage the...
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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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A Salad Foe The Solitary. A Salad For Th...
"' The curfew tolls the knell of parting day , In every elime ^ from Lapland to Japan ; To fix one spark of beauty ' s heavenly ray , The proper study of mankind is man . Tell ! for you caii , what is it to be wise , ' Sweet Auburn , loveliest village of the plaifi ? ' The man of Ross ! ' each lisping bab e replies , And drags , afc each remove , a lengthening chain . Ah ! who can tell how hard it is to climb Far as the solar walk or milky way ? Procrastination is the thief of time , Let Hercules himself do what he may . 'Tis education forms the common mind , The feast of reason and the flow of soul ; I must be cruel only to be kind , And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole . Syphax ! I joy to meet thee thus alone . Where ' er I roam , whatever lands I see ; A youth to fortune and to fame unknown , In maiden meditation fancy free . Farewell ! and wheresoe ' er thy voice be tried , Why to yon mountain turns the gazing eye , "With spectacles on nose and . pouch , on side , That teach the rustic moralist to die . Pity the sorrows of a poor old man , Whose beard descending swept his aged breast ; Laugh -where we must , be candid where we can , Man never is , but always to be blest . ' "
November 19, 1853] The Leader. 1123
November 19 , 1853 ] THE LEADER . 1123
Margaret. Margaret; Or, Prejudice At Som...
MARGARET . Margaret ; or , Prejudice at Some and its Victims . An Autobiography . In two vbls . Price 7 s . Bentley . This , as the work with which Mr . Bentley inaugurates his bold speculation of g iving us novels cheap as cheap books , will excite a degree of attention which its power and its desire to quit the beaten track , for pressing realities , will justify . The book is singular in many respects . There is a fervour and sustained purpose in it which carries the reader through much that is objectionable—very much that is unreal . It is an autobiography , the scope of which is nothing less than to expose the wretched conventionalisms which trample goodness and courage out of life , which make poverty the worst of crimes , which render it perilously difficult for a young woman to earn her living in any sphere higher than that of domestic service , and which make religion a mockery and a form ..
Such is thepurpose . We cannot always applaud its execution . Where exaggeration does not run over into falsehood , improbability often warns ofF belief . In such a crusade , truth and moderation are indispensable . Now the writer of Margaret is perhaps a very sincere person , quite unconscious of the untruth which his or her pictures convey—and far be it from us to say or insinuate anything directly throwing a doubt on his or her sincerity . Bungling workmanship , however , is untruth , although not mendacity ; and that the workmanship is bungling , as regards the
presentation of religion ( not to mention other topics ) , we assert on the evidence of the effect produced on our minds as we read . In the early chapters we were moved to something like indignation by the obtrusive and immodest display of religious phrases , reminding us of the cant with which religious novels are saturated . In calling this " immodest , " we adopt the sentiment so admirably expressed in the current number of the North JSritish Heview , wherein a writer whose orthodoxy is as unquestionable as his ability , thus remonstrates with some American writers : —
"The novelist who , in professing to depict human life , dispenses altogether with Christian agency , is leaving Hamlet out of the play with a vengeance ; hut the opposite fault of violating the modesty of religious feeling , by an iniHeasonable foisting of it in the faces of those who do not comprehend it , is even worse than a merel y negative neglect . It is the greatest immodesty that can be perpetrated . All modesty , if analyzed , proves to be nothing more than the reluctance of a pure lieart to having its feelings bared to the gaze of an imperfect sympathy ; and the higher and deeper the feeling , the greater the indecency Jtnd ruinous wrong of exposing it . "
But amid the prodigality of pulpit language there stood what looked like an unusual liberality , in the shape of an infidel whom wo are taught to regard as a most truthful , exemplary man . He rejects Christianity ; yet ho is made more Christian in act and feeling than all the other Christians in the book , except the mild , acquiescent grandfather , whose Christianity allows him to be " put upon" as if he were a Job . This puzzled uh . Very sincere Christians recognise the fact that a man may reject the doctrines , yet act up to tho spirit of Christianity ; but although sincere- Christiana do this , very " professing" Christians assuredly do not . You never expect charity from those who are loud in their assertion .
or preaching Christ . " Accordingly , we thought at first that the writer ^ Margaret was'a . person of great-liberality , who had only been infected Avith tho phraseology of a Hect . Hut as wo proceeded through the voluincH , and noted the reiterated attacks on churchmen and professing Christiana , together with the vigorous onslaughts upon tho forms and HJOckorieR which mask real Christian feeling , tho suspicion became irre-RiHtible . " Thifl writer , " wo Haul , " is only using religious phraseology n « 'i stalking horse , behind which ho may neenrely shoot the arrows of bin scorn at the mummeries of orthodoxy . " Before cloning tho volumes , our fluspicions oscillated , and now calmly reviewing the whole scries of indications , although wo will not accuse- the writer of having boon moved by hucIi . an intention , wo do accuse him of being a bungler at his work , if that Were not his intention .
Jn tho attiMiks on current prejudices , in the exposure of heartless conduct voneored by respectability , in the crusade a ^ am . st " hIwuhh , " social and moral , the writer is often powerful , and only fails of being always and completely ho by tho want of Hiiflioiont attention to details , » "ul by representing , lH typical what is obviously exceptional . It is renlly a great subject Hub of tho obstuclew social and moral which frustrate woman's Mtempts to earn a livelihood ; but it demands tho severity of
unoxaggerated truth , or its presentation must fail in effect . In Margaret the writer has been allowing his imagination to substitute the sequences of life ; he has combined a story out of imaginative sequences , not out of actual experience . This is the more to be remarked , because he has evidently been actuated by a desire to quit the track of the circulating library , and to draw upon actual or recorded experience for materials ; but the reality is not depicted in its real traits , and is mingled with much that is obviously fictitious . We are arguing very seriously—some will think severely—with this author on his first appearance . It is not often that a novel calls for such criticism , and the author must accept so much of the implied compliment . He has been very near producing a book "to make a sensation ; " it is because he has power in him we have paused to point out the causes why he has not wholly succeeded . We say "he" to avoid the repetition of a qualification ; but our belief is that the writer is a woman .
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We should do cur utmost to encourage the Beautiful , fcx tbe Useful encoura £ ea itself—GojiTiri ? .
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TTW . ® © 1 * 1 ¦® W & 3 * % u 'apoioguf . H ^§| WO old Owls lived in domestic quiet , in the oriel window of an Ml M ; ancient ruin . They had lived there for years , staring at the world ^ i W with large round wondering eyes , but mingling no more with it j | gjj <|| than was necessary ; their experience of it had made them lier-( £ > c / cxa < 2 / mits . If , as would occasionally happen , they ventured into the sunlight , they were blinded and bewildered by the glare , buffeted and insulted by the smaller birds , who made game of them . And so they secluded themselves in their mossy solitude , and lived there in plump , cosy , downy contentment . A few worms and mice sufficed for food ; and for affection , each sufficed to each .
One night a Hawk , an old acquaintance of their childhood , flew into their nest . The meeting was cordial with the reminiscences of youth . They talked of old times till the dawn" was grey , and the twitter of the smaller birds rose sharp into the morning air . They marvelled , indeed , to see how young the Hawk looked , with his bright restless eye , his slim legs , and barred plumage , like those of a gay young bachelor . He told them it was because he had lived . And then he dazzled the old Owl with sparkling narratives of the outer world , and raised strange longings in his breast to see something of the varied forms of life so eloquently described .
" Whenever I have ventured out by daylight , " said the Owl , " the other birds have mocked me ; so , thinking I was out of my proper sphere , I returned to my home . " " That is because you have not boldly taken your position , " replied the Hawk . " In the world you must take what you want—no one gives . When I make my appearance you should see how the birds rush to the nearest wood and thicket , giving vent to their scandalized terror in various cries !" " Do they never fly after you P "
" Sometimes ; but that is only when I have got one of them in my talons . Coming here this afternoon I carried ofl" the wife of a most respectable partridge , " said the Hawk , with a libertine shake of the head . " I wanted her , and so I took her . The whole covey followed me , making an uproar like a village of outraged women ; they thought I wanted her for my seraglio . Wot-1—I ale her . " As the Hawk said this the old Owl looked at him with envy and respect ; but In ' s wife " shuddered , " and thought the Hawk would be a had companion for her lord . She was glad when he flew away , and devoutly wished he would never fulfil his promise , of " looking in . upon thorn" some fine
day . The words of the tempter dwelt in the old Owl ' s mind . JTe was moody , taciturn , abstracted . Visions of the gay life led by Hawks tormented him . The ruin where he had spent so many happy years seemed now a monotonous prison ; mice and worms seemed now a monotonous regimen ; Inn old wife " twaddled , " he thought ; and he himself felt old , as he thought how much younger . seemed his friend . The Hawk had been to Court , and , indeed , was related to the . 'Kniperor Ea ^ le . Why should not he , also , make a figure at the . Eagle ' s CourtP Why should he remain tho terror of mice , when lie might make the dovecots flutter ?
In this mood he saw tho Hawk return , and gladly accepted the proposition to " see life , " in his company ; but , afraid of his wife ' s tears and reproaches , afraid of his own conscience , he dared not tell her of what he was about to do . Ho slipped away , louring Juvr dozing on her perch She- awoke to her bereavement . It would be a long tale to tell how the truant Owl was disenchanted by reality ; bow vain his of lor Is to become a young dandy , like tho Hawk ; how miserable tho sunlight mmilo him ; how the food disagreed with him ; how he wont to Court , and wjls haughtily disowned by the . Eaglo , and mercilessl y quizzed by tho oouitier birds ; how heart nick and feeble he returned to his old oriel window , to spend his days in such peace- an remorse would leave him .
As ho flew homewards all the dear familiar scones cat no soothing to Inn mind , like a breeze from tho sea whore on a feverish brow . The image o ( his oild and loving companion , with whom all joys and sorrows had been shared , boeamo an alternate anguish and alternate joy to his troubled heart , filling him with remorse and with hope . -Ah ho How iuto tho ruin a huge and murderous rat slunk away into his hole , licking his bloody lips ' . As ho flow up to his nest a film overshadowed his eyes , for there , before him , lay the mangled body of his murdered wife . Ho had left her old and unprotected ; ho found her a corpse . Vivian
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 19, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19111853/page/19/
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