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rally , looking down ivpon them .. Her cheeks "were very pale , but fires that were no heaven-lit were burning somewhere within her , shining out at her eye and now and then colouring her face with a sudden flare . There was a pause . Mr . Have tried what he could do with his beefsteak ; and his daughter ' s countenance showed the cloud and the flame of the volcano by turns . "The volcanic fixes leaping up higher" spoil the poor man ' s "breakfast : — Elizabeth in a . whirl of feeling that like the smoke of the volcano hid everything but itself , went and stood in . the window ; present to nothing but herself ; seeing neither-the street without nor the house within . Wrapped in that smoke , she did not know when the servant went out , nor whether anybody else came in . She stood there pale , with lips set , her hands folded against her waist , and pressing there with a force the muscles never relaxed . A subsequent conversation represents this beauty " disgorging foul her devilish glut" upon her father and young stepmother at once : — - She brought , as she spoke , her eye of fire to bear upon her cousin , -who gave "way before it and was anum . .
_ luizabeth favoured her with a look winch effectually spiked that little gun . for the time . ¦ : . ¦ ¦ ' . ' . ' . ' ¦ ¦ ; ¦ . . ; Her father warns her to take care of her eyes—a piece of advice as popular in America , it would seem , as in London : — He might well tell her to take care of her eyes . They glowed in their sockets as she confronted him , while heir cheek was as blanched as a lire at the heart could leave it . -. •' . ; . . The reader is now anxious to be relieved from the presence of Miss Warner and Miss Elizabeth Haye . We have only in reserve an ineffabl e originality , concerning ye way in wliich she eonsenteth to become ye wife of Winthrop Landholm : —
" Miss Haye , I have a great boon to ask of you . " " Well ? " said Elizabeth , eagerly . " I am very glad you have !" "Why ? " ¦ . . ¦¦ . , -- ¦ . ¦ : ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ : ¦ , : ; '¦ ¦ ¦ " Why ?—why , because it ' s pleasant . " " You don ' t know what it is , yet . " "No , " said Elizabeth , " but my words are safe . " " I want you to give me something . " " You preface it as if it were some great thing ,., and you look as if it was nothing , " thought Elizabeth , a little in . wonderment . But she said only , " You may have it . AVhatisit ?" " Guess . "
" I can't possibly . " " You are incautious . You don ^ t know what you arc giving away . ' " What is it ? " said Elizabeth , a little iinpatientlv . " Yourself . " Many a book is pronounced " the most remarkable the season , has produced , " but the Mills of the Shatemuc is , without a rival , the silliest . It ¦ would have been scarcely worth while to say so were it not that several publishers at once are drivin g iliss Warner's heroes and lieroines to market , so that the public is in danger of being deceived by the appearance of English popularity which can now be conferred , for trading purposes , upon any American author .
Old Memories is a far better novel than The Hills of the Shatemtic , but it will not attain a twentieth of its popularity . The three-volume fashion inflicts great injury upon English novel winters . Scarcely any romance published during the season , with circulating library aims , is worse than some of the pirated reprints that are sold by thousands in a cheap form . Miss Melville ' s , as we have said , is better than Miss Warner's—better in tone , in plot , in conduct ; it is written more naturally , and is a good deal more interesting . It has been before remarked that three-volume novels may be tried by two standards , the standard of art and that of the circulating library . The test of art reduces tbe long lists of announcements , in fashionable and unfashionable quarters ,-to insignificance ; that of the circulating library brings tbe generality of such productions to a level . Of course the writers are more or less proficient there are the practised and the unpractised : artizans familiar with the machinery of their craft .
and apprentices without the advantage of an overseer . Miss Julia Melville belongs to the latter class . She is young as a novelist . Her style wants hardening ; she busies herself too industriously with pictures of mansions , gardens , and scenery ; her sentiment is sky-blue , always pretty ; and she has built some very old materials into her story . Towards the catastrophe , also , she seems to have "been in want of an effect , and to have raised the dead for her necessity , At all events , no other reason is conceivable for bringing upon the stage , Avhen the heroine is happily married , the apparition ¦ of a former friend—long supposed to have been trodden in the dust of Waterloo . He comes , shrieks , and goes , and the story glides on as before . But there are many pleasing qualities in this novel , which may be put into country parcels for the enlivenment of the lengthening evenings of this October .
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and characteristics of a later period . The more intimately we thus become acquainted with Washington , the more firmly he becomes fixed in our esteem . Even escapades of petulance , and the white hot passions- which sometimes mastered him , are proofs of the man which no sensible reader would forego . They are touches of nature which quicken our sj mpathies a thousand times more than all the stately writings that are preserved as tributes to his memory . The history opens with a genealogical chapter about the right ancient and loyal line from which the Washingtons descended . The first written ireeord of the family occurs in 1183 , in a document called the Bold en Book , wherein are recorded the lands belonging to the diocese of Durham . After this date the diversely written name of Wessyngton , Weshington , Wcschington , Wassingion , Washington , and Washington , is to be found in old historical documents of nearly every reign . The family is always mentioned with honour .
Its members , whether knights , soldiers , or priests , lived up to the mark and maintained the respectability of their race . Two members of that branch of the family to which General Washington immediately belonged , distinguished themselves in the civil wars , in which they adhered to the royal cause with generous and unswerving devotedness . One of them , was Sir Henry Washington , commandant of Worcester , and memorable for the heroic constancy with which he held that city for the king under desperate circumstances . " Those , " says Irving , " who believe in hereditary virtues may see foreshadowed in the conduct of this Washington of Worcester the magnanimous constancy of purpose , the disposition to ' hope against hope which bore our Washington triumphantly through the darkest days of our revolution . " In 1657 , two of Sir Henry ' s undes emigrated to Virginia , and purchased lands inWestmoreland county , between the Potomac and Happahannock rivers . It was on these lands , in the homestead on Bridges Creek , on the 22 nd of February , 1732 , that George Washington was born .
He was the eldest son of a second marriage . His half-brother Dawrence , who was his senior by fourteen years , was , according to the fashion of the time , sent to England to complete his education . George enjoyed no such advantage ; lie received the rudiments of learning atari " old field school ' house" kept by one of his father ' s tenants named Hobby , who moreover was sexton of the parish . He was afterwards removed to a superior school ; but the scope of his education seems to have been" confined to fitting him for ordinary business , and to that extent it was signally successful . " He never attempted the learned languages , nor manifested any inclination for rhetoric or belies iettres . " His ignorance of the French language subsequently
occasioned him nvuch inconvenience . On one occasion he capitulated to the French under circumstances that were considered derogatory to his honour as a commander . The truth 3 s that the articles of capitulation were blunderingly translated by his old rriaster of fence Von Braam , who appears to have had a very imperfect knowledge either of French or English . But however limited the range of his school instruction , Oeorge Washington had the benefit of a mental and moral culture of a hi ^ h order at home . His excellent father " imbued him ¦ with a spirit of justice and generosity , and above all a scrupulous love of truth , " and his eldest toother in a great measure supplied the place of that father , when George lost him at an early age : —¦
When George was about seven or eight years old , his brother Lawrence returned from England , a well-educated and accomplished youth . There wa $ a difference of fourteen . years in their ages , which may have been one cause of the strong attachment which took place between them . Lawrence looked down with a protecting eye upon the boy whose dawning 1 intelligence and perfect rectitude v'on his regard ; while George looked up to his manly and cultivated brother as a model in mind and manners . "We . call particular attention to this brotherly interchange of affection , from the influence it had oh all the future career of the subject of this memoir . His mother , also , was one of his best teachers . Her eldest son was eleven years old , when by her deceased husband ' s will she became sole guardia'h . of the persons and large property of her children : —
She proved herself worthy of the trust . Endowed with plain , direct good sense ,-thorough conscientiousness , and prompt decision , -slip governed her family strictly , but kindly , exacting deference , while she inspired affection . George , being her eldest son , was thought to be her . favourite , yet she never gave him undue preference , and the implicit deference exacted from liim in childhood continued to be habitually observed by him to the day of her death . He inherited from her a high temper and a spirit of command , but her early precepts and example tsiught him to restrain and govern that temper , and to square his conduct on the exact principles of equity nnd justice . Tradition gives au interesting picture of the widow , with her little flock gathered round her , as was her daily wont , reading to them lessons of religion aud morality out of some standard work . Her favourite volume was Sir Matthew Ilale ' s Contemplations , moral and divine . The admirable maxims therein contained , for outward action , as well as self-government , sank deep into the miuil of Georgo , aud , doubtless , had a great influence in forming his diameter . They certainly were exemplified in his conduct throughout life . This mother ' s manual , bearing liia mother ' s name , Mary Washington , written with her own hand , was ever preserved by him with filial care , aud may still he seen in the archives of Mount Vernon . A precious document ! Lot those who wish to know the moral foundation of his character consult its pages .
EAftLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON " . Life of Wushinglon . By Washington Irving . Volumes I . II . III . Bohn ( FIRST NOTICE . ) Faua years ago it was announced that Washington Irving was working at his home on the Hudson , upon a nearly completed History of General Washington . Subsequently a long absence in ICuropo and occasional ill health stayed the historian ' s graceful pen , but the long-strained expectations of the reading world hsive not been disappointed , for here is a largo and excellent instalment of the promised work . Three such volumes as these
make it a matter for congratulation that Irving has not adhered to his first intention of devotin g hi mself only to the novel of American life- His present subject belongs rather to the domain of history than of biography , for as he observes , " Washington had very little private life , but was eminently a public character . All his actions and concerns almost from his boyhood were connected with the history of his oountry , " Irving however takes especial pleasure in those glimpses of his hero ' s early days which enable us to surmise by what influences " his character was formed and he gradually trained up and prepared for his great destiny . " Nor docs the careful biographer fail to note any particular that tends to illustrate the personal habits
In 1740 Lawrence Washington obtained a captain ' s commission in a regiment raised in the colonies , nnd served with distinction in the joint expeditions of Admiral Vcnion and General Wontworth against the Spaniards in South America . His cxiinij > lc could not fail to develop in his younger brother that militnry instinct which had been hereditary in their lino for six centuries : — We have here the secret of that martial spirit bo often ciLcd of Georgo in his boyish days . Ho liad seen his brother fitted out for tho -wars . Ilu had heard by letter and . otherwise of the warlike scenes in which he was mingling . All Jiia umueomenta took a military turn . He in ado soldiers of his schoolmates ; they liad their mimic parades , reviews , and sham fights ; a boy named William Buatle wan sometimeshia competitor , but George was connnaudor-iu-chicf of Hobby's school . And his pre-eminence was also acknowledged by his compeers in the superior school to which he afterwards removed : — Ho was a sulf-dtaciplinnrinn in physical na well as mental matter /) , and practised himself in till kinds of atliletic exercises , such as running , leaping , wrestling , pitching quoits , nnd tossing burn . His frame , even in infancy , had been large and powerful , aud he now * excelled most of his playmates in contests of agility and strength . As a
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October 4 , 1 & 56 . J T H E X ., E JL D E B . 955
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1856, page 955, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2161/page/19/
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