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mr farewell of ' Ethel "— -only recommending the writer , when she makes ler next effort , not to tell a too uniformly mournful story , and not to forget ibat—in Literature as in Painting—the stud y of Nature i 8 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 3 tory 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 the story is want of dramatic power—a defect on which " we have no desire to hear
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 ¦ w ith perfect honesty recommend Idaline as a hook from which much 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 Virginia ten 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 ftne ^ gentleman—scenes of moral indignation on the one side , and of vicious assiduity on the other , l'epeated 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 and single words , distributed over page after Dage , producing no recognisable development of character , and adding nothing , or next to nothing , to the progress of the story , fairly weane . l us out by the time we had got half through the book . The seeond volume may be _ the best , and -we gladly give the author " the benefit of the doubt . " ^ Judging by the first , Virginia Comedians has not given us a very exalted idea of what Young America is capable of doing 3 n the -way of historical fiction . '
Befoie closing the present notice , -we may be permitted to acknowledge the receipt of three reprinted hovels which require no special , recomhiendation from us . They are , Mr . James ' s Russell , and Mr . Cooper ' s Oak Openings and Deerslayer . These books have passed through the ordeal of criticism , and when we have announced them we have done enough .
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We should < 3 o our utmost to eiac"ura : ; e the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —G- 'ETHE .
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y &r m as as -s » as & sp as * IV . Conclusion * . ® S | 2 @IiVJPLE and uniform as the honey of the honeymoon maybe in its ! mM § nature , yet so tyrannical are circumstances , that perhaps there is no S ^ H ^^ men s aves more various in its sensations than the wedding § Mls 4 ^ ' ^ *" ew couldhsive plunged in tn its most unmitigated severities ! &-. » ,. a . -with more despondency than Mr . Putton . He had , by a wonderful exercise of patient art , persuaded his Amy that under all circumstances a plain wedding , an unobtrusive , a confidential wedding , would be the most appropriate j he had accomplished the church service without observation , evaded a parental breakfast , and got back to hia own quiet house with triumphant quietude . Exhausted by weeks of mamcuvring , he had at last reached the haven , and was just beginning to dread a long day of Amy ' s modest fundness , when a blessed interruption came—blessed as an 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 ha < J ever since been turning over in his mind the best mode of restoring it , until , at last , ho 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 waa not a thief ; and now one of Jarrett ' s coarse and ill-timed intrusions blew to the winds his whole scheme for getting rid of that infected note . u Do not go , Mr . Dutton , " cried Jarrqtt , in a tone of unexpected kindness ; * my visit is to both of you . I thought I would not call too soon , Mrs . Dutton , although I was anxious to make the communication to you winch I am commissioned . " Amy bowed , wondering what the man could call too soon . She had learned to hate Mr . Jurrctt for hia ingratitude to Dutton .
" 1 would not intrude on bliss , you know , during the month ; but as soon after , Mrs . Dutton , us possible . Mr . Smith has felt , Mrs . Dutton , that his conduct , and especially 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 5 he has wished , ma ' am , that , however circumstances may have altered , you should not , at all events , do him , he said , —and let me add yourself too , Mrs . Dutton , —an injustice : and he has selected myself , as an old friend , to be the medium of a friendly communication . And although Mr . Dutton has no curiosity in this matter" [ " Is that affectation , " thought Dntton , or was I really unobserved ?' ] , " it will bo quite proper that he should be present . 1 shall not detain you long , sir . " And Jarrott proceeded to tell the story of his now partner ' a " fair Italian / 1 It had alwaya beon John Smith's habit to tnko long country walks . In a quiet town life , with limited moans , with no tnatea that led him iuto fast " society , it waa almost his ouly resource for tasting nomcthiug of the energy
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 his long walks alone , where misconception , expressions unanswered , or thoughts halting short of his own , could not shock him ; but where the broad naked raoon or the sweeping wind gave him stark glaring truth for truth , and vehemence for vehemence , while his well-tried muscles won repose .
One night he was returning towards town from Dorking , and crossing by the foot-path which cut off an angle on the road between Leatherhead ° 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 lie 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 him gone by , gave way to the quiet , even sobbing which he had interrupted . lie 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 onlyj he wrung from her that she had just been left , she hoped for 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 glistening 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 ma , de it more 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 he 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 trouble . " That , " said Jarrett , interrupting himself , "is now nearly a year ago , audit 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 uf 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 , he never explained , and his daughter never kne-w . It was surmised that his family had treated him unjustly , and that h e 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 who are not renegade converts to the heresy of Luther , the conversation of her father corrected every trace of bigotry ; and the religion of lo-ve which found its home in the young bosom of Spcranza , 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 the 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 the convent , occasionally brought forth to extend well selected friendships among the English ; for England , said the good Abbate , was to be her home .
But fair Florence lias 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 , whoso friends 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 patrons , a little " assistance" with money , and many vague promises induced 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 alight brogue , and a faint Italian nccent , lie had the field of Protestantism , mission and society before him . The spiritual Deucalion
only wanted a Pyrrha , and Speranza exactly suited him , lie was young but not artlesB ; she waa both ; and in a short time she was convinced that he adored her , that she -was to bo a victim to the all-devouring Church—a doomed nun—no nun is overseen in Florence now that ia not hideous— -a pensioned pauper ; while love , freedom , ancl a purer religion awaited her in England . Thaddous was " assisted" by virtuoun evangelical friends , and Sperftiiza eloped . Never did young womanhood run a more rapid career of enlightenment than in that voyage to England . Not that ho scducod her ~ ho was not bud nor bold enough for thnt . He did not intend to risk his game in that way . He only indulged his passion enough to win her affection , and to draw her modestly into hia arms— -which ho did . And she remembered it afterwards . But the voyage to England , and tlioir first dwelling there , auflicod to touch her what Uo wfts , what threatened her . She discovered—it was ao thickly , grossly palpable , that love itself could not
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• Sco Leader , Noa . 2 ! I 4 , 285 , 2 dO .
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1052 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 4, 1854, page 1052, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2063/page/20/
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