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1026 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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AILIKl-OIU). Ail'ifford: -A Family Histo...
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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Transcript
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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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The Eeligio3st Of The Heart. The Religio...
If it does , ( and the power of thinking so , and of hoping so , is given tis by the same Beneficence , ) he knows that a time will come , when he shall be beheld again . To bear the same anguish as ourselves , is therefore not in his power . But he ~ ^ pity us still : lie knows the struggles that we have still to endure ; he looks on his mortal friends with immortal kijidness ; on these dear relations ; on these weak and beloved children ; and whatsoever a spirit can feel , in the place of tears , that assuredly he feels , blessing us -with an angel's countenance . " Let us pacify ourselves in the hope of rejoining him : let us become patient in it : let us rejoice in it ; let us earn , if we may so speak , the right of the re-union
by all the thoughts which lie would desire us at this moment to entertain , by all the duties which he would wish us , now and ever , to perform . That we are not vessels broken by the way , let these our endeavours , and even these our sorrows , show to us ; for surely sorrow , if it be loving , will be recompensed , and good endeavour is our share in the great task of serving the divine energy , and extending happiness to others . Let us show , before we leave this earth , that we are deserving of a heaven of heavens , that is to say , a heaven with those whom we have loved , by having extended , as far as lies in our power , a heaven upon earth ; and may our sorrows do for us what our virtues have left undone !"
IMMORTALITY . " For does this soul within me , this spirit of thought , and love , and infinite d esire , dissolve as well as the body ? Has Nature , who quenches our bodily thirst , who rests our weariness , and perpetually encourages us to endeavour onwards , prepared no food for this appetite of immortality ?"
PEAYEE . " But for the most part , we should pray rather in aspiration than petition , rather by hoping than requesting ; in which spirit also we may breathe a devout wish for a blessing on others , upon occasions when it might be presumptuous to Deg it" But let no one disgrace his belief in a Divine Being , eitlier with thinking to gain by praise what his endeavours or his troubles should obtain for him ; or by assuming even the right to praise , when hie worship has never been anything but that of a worldling or a slave . " To praise even an earthly father in order to gain some object by the praise , is disgraceful in children , and dishonouring towards himself . " What is to be thought of it , when the father is God ? " God is not to be supposed to delight in praise and glorification , like a satrap . To praise is to vjjraisc ; and who can upraise the highest ? To glorify is to surround with pomp and lustre ; and what , can do that like his works ?
" The jiraise which God requires from creatures no . greater than oui-selves , is to love one another ; to delight ourselves in his works ; to advance in knowledge ; and to thank him , when we are moved to do so , from the bottom of our hearts . " Thank Avhenever your heart is joyful , and the occasion not mean : —not as children who are taught to do it , in good manners , for every little tiling ; much less for meat and drink in particular , unless when you can give tliem to the poor , or when you yourself have failed in spirit for need of them ; but chiefly for tilings spiritual and noble ; for the good and beauty of his works ; for the happiness of your friends ; for the advancements of your fellow-creatures . "
TEAES AND LAUGHTER . " God made both tears ' and laughter , and both for kind purposes . For as laughter Tiiablfts mirth and surprise to breathe freely , so tears enable Borrow to vent iteelf pn . tiently . Tears hinder sorrow from becoming despair and madness ; and laughter ia one of the veiy privileges of reason , being confined to the human species . " These extracts , taken from various marked passages , will show , better than any description , what is the nature and spirit of the book . It is a book which cannot be read even as a book ( and not accepting it as a ritual ) without humanizing and enlarging the reader ' s mind . Leigh Hunt , in the fine concluding passage of the preface , assures us that
" Partially as it has yet been put in action , and in a veiy small circle , it h : is done good to man , woman , arid child . Infirmity of purpose has found help in it : thought has dated advancement from it : parents have happily beijun with it : beloved memories of the dead have endeared it—have in the eyes of affection consecrated it : and if any one should Kuppo . se that I way thus much of it out of any earthly consideration , apart from the welfare of those for whom it is intended , he knows little either of life or death , compared with that experience of joy and of sorrow , which has impelled me to give it to tho world . " AIL avo can say is , that a iioblo and accomplished woman was listening to her husband's reading of tho hook when we called on © evening , and that her eyes were full of tours !
1026 The Leader. [Saturday,
1026 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Ailikl-Oiu). Ail'ifford: -A Family Histo...
AILIKl-OIU ) . Ail'ifford : -A Family History . By tho Author of John Dray ton . 3 Vola . Vriv . c . 31 . v . Ud . ' JIniHt and Ulnckctfc . John Drai / lon—Jicntlei /' s Jtaihoat / JAbrary . Price Is . jHontloy . With great natural poworn , a , style of unusual grace and beauty , a keen and tender sympathy with , all the manifold nobilities and infirmities of our nature , the author of John . Dra t / ton wins from'his reader peculiar regard , and even from his critic a tenderness of castigation , Hpringing from sorrow rather than anger . We have on two occasions had both to praise haticalland to condemn
this writer emp y with regret ; we fancied avo were dealing with a , clergyman , and now that Ave understand , the Author to bo ji lady , avo have ; only the most technical objections to make . Her new novel , AiUcJbrd , has kept us 'fascinated over i | lf » pa ^ es . It has but one fault in our eyes , a , fault in Art very common in novels , ' and mainly owing , we believe , to tho inexorable necessities of throe volumes . It is properly a novel in two volumes , —the third is lileo the fifth act of one of XuowIcVh comedies , a , mere dallying with the catastrophe . Instead of allowing her creation to ntand before us in its own proportions , the authoress has followed the fashion , nm \ j > ad (/ e < l out to roach tho convention ;)! standard .
After noting this one fault , which was Avorlh noting , for if , will hcHouhIv affect the general impression produced by the book , let iih cjiII attention to the charming humanity moving through these pages , and to the really religious tone , unostentatious yet abiding , mnnifoHted Ions in Hcripture quotations than in sympathy with whatever is true , nlleetionate , and holy . . Let us also note tho musical and poelica . l , an well iih picturofunio stylo , and the easy distinctness of tho dinractomation . They arc ( Scotch people , all
of them ; the lrnsk of Scottish , harshness is not made to conceal the kernel of Scottish humanity . The cautions , timid Andrew , the cold and wise Mary Burnet , the active tonguecj . Mrs . Cockburn , the wild Jamie , the excellent Mother , and that capital incidental sketch of the grumbling Father , are one and all portraits , touched with a very delicate and skilful hand . J ^ othing can be better than the truthful way in which the grand and visionary sybil adapts herself to the prosaic realities of her domestic life , and while showing the courage and sagacity of an ideal housewife to endxire and to contrive , there is shining through it all , the passionate and poetic nature , winch having made its poems out of vision , noAy makes a poem out of life . Equally admirable is the unforced way ra which Willie Mitchell , the narrator , is depicted as a speculative do-nothing , kind and ineffectual , always " unon" by others , always pushed asido by the rushing current of life * and left moaning on its banks , "hel pless , but not untaught .
We shall not mar the reader's zest by even hinting at the course taken by this simple and interesting story ; but by way of an extract easily separated from the context , and not a bad specimen of the author ' s descriptive powerSj we will find room for the following : —
GEEMAH" PICTURE . "Only a very short time after , my sole preparationfor my new beginning consisting in an introduction , supplied me by my Jew friend , to the Commandant of Wurtzburg , I took my place in the SchnelljJost , and set out for the old ecclesiastical city . The Sclmellpost was not by any means so sdmell as it professed to be ; but with our horses jingling in their loose harness , and bur postillion , glorious hi azure coat and silver lace , we made no small commotion as we dashed through the
half-awakened villages in the cold , early daylight of October . The heavens had been weeping as we rattled out of the stony streets of Frankfort , and now , though a faint sunlight began to flutter about the sky , the green , silent country roada and way-side cottages looked at first drenched and sodden , full ,, of the morning rain . But as Ave made progress , the atmosphere lightened , and now . the brown tobacco leaves , hung up upon the cottage walls , began to flutter faintly on the rising breeze , and to shake from them their heavy burden of rain-drops ; and what was damp before , greAV deAvy and sparkling under the rising light , and the day was full once iriore in the clear enfranchised heavens .
" The faint dull stir of this far inland country life began , and under the way-side trees , heavy with their cloud of small , brown , russet apples , a decent peasant of Bavaria , Avith long black coat , and flat , silver . "buttons , now and then paused to look up at us , sheltering his eyes with his hand . He might lie a Lutheran village Dominus of the Reformation times , " if-we took his appearance for our sole guidemight have sat . at mild Melanchton ' s feet , or cheered the brave young Hessian Philip in his ardour for the faith ; but he is only a father of the hamlet yonder , a man of to-day after the antique fashion which to-day-wears in Bavaria , and Avill soon be plodding over the Frankfort road-with his meek cow harnessed to his rough wooden cart—no steed of other mettle procurable to his poverty —carrying the produce of his home-acre to the market Ave have left behind .
" And now , up a hundred little , tantalizing , eminences , -which we never see , but only feel , as our vehicle creeps at a snail's pace up the ascending side to reward our long-suffering with a tAvo-minutes' gallop down—trees in a long succession thicken round us , and withdrawing somewhat sullenly from the desecrating public road , which breaks their calm , the relics of the great Spessart forest stretch away in half-cleared glades and croAvded knolls on either hand . Pine trees in rank and file , a ' ragged army , with not a rood of underwood for miles to reconcile tho umbrage on their heads Avith the luxuriant soil iri which their feet are planted ; but long pale glimmers of sky instead , flying along behind them , and bring ing out the rigid individuality of every separate trunk in strong and high relief . ( Stout old oaks , too , gnarled and knotty , and pretty shy withdrawing beeches , brave in the russet ribbons of the Avaning year , like village maidens dressed f or an autumn festival . Along the grassy edges of tho roadgood-humoured and unenvious , a . — —— — — j — — — _ 7 --
, . o o ~ o ~ o ^ , 11 in file of stumpy nca « ias , hanging down their long" graceful leaves in a roundea . uau , very like a clownish shock of hair , keep the way , not without a half-comic sense of their contrast , uniform and trim , to their free natural brethren behind . Something like thci strong suppressed excitement Avhich attends n youth ' s first journey into tho world , is with me now , less fresh and less delighted , Imt more eager—for I have a strange certainty that I go into some new and brighter development ot life . The road interests me somewhat , but tho road is tedious , and I am often inclined to spring doAvn , like tho impetuous Frenchman , and push th e sl umbrous vehicle , which I almost fancy a sturdy pedestrian might outstrip , from behind . But still the hours pasa on as avo pass , the cheerful morning light glides round , and by-and-byo throwa itself aslant over those peaceful fields and the far slopes of the re-treating forest , and at last our long day's journey ia concluding , m t '
mist of coming night . 'Must before tho minflot , as tho light grew languid , woary with its day ' s labour done , I camo first in Bight of Wurtalmrg . Tho Himbcama had ascended higher than tho dim and shadowed Maine , which , travelling a longer road than we , l »! W crossed our path more than once on his way to Frankfort and the Rhino . l > u calm and placid lay tho little river , playing softly with a tiny ' ferry-boat , tl ) a y ° could not have Huspeetal him of ho long a journey , nor believed that , ever so oore mid weary , bin quiet tide could hold its course ' so far . On hi « eastern D » i low vineH , trimly luxuriant , climbed upward rank by rank , till they reaches the long level muibeamfl straying over the hill tops , mid brig htened into aniUefl . nuccess and pleasure under tho lingering ray . Opposite thofle mild I ' ranoon loftier
hillH , no higher than a river ' * braes might bo at home , rose ft ouu " ^"] / bearing on a natural platform , half-way up it « iiscont , tho donjon of tho cl ™|^ ' and overshadowing Avifcli an air of natural protection tho grey calm town h- And flashing here and fch . 6 ro in a gilded vane , striking a long golden lmo tiu ^ h ^ HtreotH which open to tins went , besotting high church toAvora and l ) inn , i " Ht ; nct a hazo of glory , which penetrated every creyioe , and brought out dark and < ' ^ nomo l-ichly IVotted moiflcln of tho cavven work of old , the mill tlirow ni « ^ iot light on Wurtzburg on Wiutzbuig , with'ita calm forart . lton p : tU < - < V' * T "j hair-holiclAy traffic in iin streets , with tho old roiricmbraneen of « coloHiaflticai j ^ rind wealth which dwell within it , like tho pale bifthopH -oil itn lyridgc- ^ i" ^ j . in an ovil , ho far : ih oppression or exaction , or haughty powor mfVy go — " « Jp of the a dreamy , fdiadowy gnuio , half-ci-eated out of tho glory of old Art— nan ' | 1 <) IU oonimon " Yi » irili » K ' "' " Njiture , for linlcH and kindly tieH to tho d < : tul , siuionB
xvi % too , to-morrow niuHt bo contout to dwell . Tlio new cdilion of John . Drayton , whushMr . Boittloy Imflp ln ^ " ™ ° £ Mio aUraclionH of Iuh Railway Library , calls for only » lmo Jroi ^ H « iy 11 ml ; it \ a |) rinl ; cd in bold rai 1 wn , y-rcrtdfiblo typo , nnU is W atnaow Blnllingsvvortli hh tlio atation-stnll can prcHpnt ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 22, 1853, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22101853/page/18/
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