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952 THE LEADER. __J^Urimi%, „_______ _^ ...
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REUBEN MEDIICOTT. Beuhen Medlicott; or, ...
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Sketches of English ...
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Jfmifolm.
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We should do our utmost to enccruxage th...
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VII. Harley-street, Jan. 13, 1852. gw§ O...
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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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Tiim Kkstokation Ok Mvaakv. The Llestora...
point now in debate , and if judged of purely on the ground of its intrinsic merits , carries home to our understandings and best feelings an irresistible impression of the goodness , wisdom , and simplicity of the writer . Search the entire compass of ethical writings , ancient and modern , we should not find even one that carries more decisively upon it the characteristics of sincerity and truthfulness . " Why should it , or why should the writer , be otherwise thought of ? For no imaginable reason , only this , that , if we allow him his due—then the plaintiff is very likely to be non-suited . " All we can say in reply is , that our amazement is ever renewed when we think that a man so gifted and so accomplished as the author of this treatise certainly is , should be able to assume an attitude of mind that can for two minutes regard such reasonings as—we will not say conclusive reasonings—but even tenable paradoxes .
952 The Leader. __J^Urimi%, „_______ _^ ...
952 THE LEADER . __ J ^ Urimi % , „_______ _^ ^ ^ ^^^^
Reuben Mediicott. Beuhen Medlicott; Or, ...
REUBEN MEDIICOTT . Beuhen Medlicott ; or , the " Coming Man . " By M . W . Savage , Esq ., author of the " Falcon Family , " & c . 3 vols . Chapman and Hall . Eveky one remembers the bright , laughing vivacity of the Falcon Family and The Bachelor of the Albany . With them Mr . Savage made a name . They had the fault , perhaps , of a too incessant smartness—a fault not to be charged upon Reuben Medlicott , in which there is but a very moderate amount of fun . The satire , such as there is , will be recognised as healthy , though not particularly mirthful . If not a comic novel , Reuben Medlicott is an amusing novel , belonging rather to the style of a byegone day . It steadily pursues the main theme , which is that of showing how ludicrously a man may fail in life , if he has not something more substantial than " splendid abilities . " This theme is developed with success—not , indeed , without exaggeration , but with no more than the genre permits , to carry home its " moral . " [ Reuben is the versatile son of a decent and horticultural vicar , and an encyclopaedic mother . Mrs . Medlicott is a lady of high complexion , immense surface-learning , and blue spectacles : a polyglott of pretension . Her son inherits her manysidedness . His desultory education furnishes a natural talking capacity with the most varied material . His whole intellect , to speak horticulturally , runs to talk . And as talk is to the mind what a table of contents is to the book , giving immense promise not always fulfilled , so do those readers , who read as they run , credit the fine talker with gigantic capacity . Thus Ueuben—like so many men known to the world—is regarded by his friends as a man certain to win the
highest honours in whatever career he opens . J £ e is the Coming Manthe cynosure of village and of college eyes . The only difficulty is in determining the precise thing for which he is most fitted—he seems fitted for all ; propre a tout , propre a rien , says the wise proverb , or , as we have it , " Jack of all trades , and master of none . " But Eeuben is master of one-trade—the trade of speech-making ; in these days not the worst of trades . He has that endless fiux of words which universally betokens poverty of ideas . Having nothing to express takes away the difficulty of expression ; and Reuben's eloquence is never clogged with the obstructive material of thought .
Such is the mind of this " Coming Man , " and if we add thereto a handsome person , a pleasant temper , an engaging manner , and quick vanity , we have Heubcn Medlicott—a type of one class of men in our days . Jlow he tries the various professions , and fails in all , niust be read in these agreeable pages . We will not take away from curiosity the pleasure it will find in reading for itself ; but we commend to especial attention the vivid and admirable portrait of Dean Wyndham , the strong , lusty , vehement , learned , abrupt , polemical , speculating , restless churchmanthe born Bishop , and of a Church Militant , too , who lives in these pages , and bears testimony to the high dramatic power of the author . He is the " gem" of the book . The other characters , though pleasantly drawn , are less life-like and complete . Wo may add , however , that they are all distinct , and individualized .
There is no passion , no fancy , no pathos , scarcely anything to be called incident , in these volumes ; so " that tho devout novel reader may , perhaps , bo disappointed . But to men and women who have lived past the age when romance is indispensable , and who can be amused with good shrewd sense , a vivacious style , and clear dramatic presentation of character , we cordially commend Reuben Medlicott . And as a fair sample , though a , brief one , we will conclude our jiolice by this extract from the Dean ' s conversation :
" The Dean was talking of fluency im a result and n symptom oi shallownoss . ' Full men , ' he Haul , ' are Mclriom fluent . They are eloquent , but eloquence and llueney are ilillerent , things . Young men discoum ; ilaently in proportion to their ignorance , not to their knowledge , of u subject . There in no more worthless or more dangerous acquirement , than eloquence in the vulgar senso of the word . ltrucc remarked of the Abyssiniaim , 'that , they were all orators , ' ' an indeed / he adds , ' aro most barbarians . " The observation is extremely applicable to an unfortunate country not a thousand miles off , with which we are very closely connected . I have always thought , the great misfortune of that , country was , that when the family of the Shallows settled then-, the family of Master Silence did not accompany thorn . ' " All laughed-- Primrose was particularly amused by this fancy of the Dean ' s , and said ho bad no notion so much about . Ireland wjis to bo learned from Shak-Kpcarc .
" ' His plays are lull of Irish characters , said the Dean . ' What do you say of such swaggering poltroons as Pistol and Parolles ? or that facetious , foul-mouthed blusterer , Thersil . es ? Are they not' Irish to the buck-hono r * ( , ' an't you fancy Pistol member for Limerick , and Tlicrsites representing the city of Dublin r" , "' Hut , sir , ' said Reuben , * speaking of Homer ' s TlnMvites , is not that a , very effective speech which he makes in the first book of the Iliad V '" Very effective , ' muttered the Dean , * but only in bringing down the staff of Ulysses upon the speaker's shoulders . Homer makes Tliersites the representative of talent without worth , eloquence without character . I ' opc well observes , that ha < l UlvHses made the same speech , the troops would have sailed that night for ( h-ecec . Character is to an individual what position in to a general . The world asks who a man is before it given him an audience , or , at least , before it hears him a Hecond tiuiu . Wo muat not only tako thought what wo say , but from whenco
we say it . Even in society , the prosperity of a jest depends upou the consider * tion of the man who makes it , often upon his place at the table . Younff ought to reflect upon this , and take more pains to make themselves respected fh 1 J 9 99 " * 3 H ( JIlSiQ admired .
Books On Our Table. Sketches Of English ...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Sketches of English Character . By Mrs . Gore . A New Edition , revised and corrected . Bentley . Lively , farcical and flippant , these sketches are railway readable , and deserve a place among the pleasant trifles included in . Sentley's Railroad Library , though no one can gravely accept them as sketches of English character , otherwise than as that character manifests itself in farces and novels . Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria , jcc . By E . Lear . Richard BentW Beatrice ; or , the Unknown Relatives . By Catherine Sinclair . 3 vols . Bichard Bentlev ' Bentley ' s Shilling Series—The Battle of Waterloo . By Professor Creasy . Richard Bentlev The People ' s Life of the Duke of Wellington . Richard Bentlev ' Bentley ' a Miscellany . Richard Bentler Blackwood' 8 Magazine . Blackwood and Son " Sand-Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy . By D . Lardner . Taylor , Walton , and Maberly The Parlour Library—The Cagot ' s ILut and the Conscript Bride . By I ? . C . Grattan . " Simms and M'Intyre . Some Circle . W . S . Johnson ! PaUssy the Potter . By H . Morley . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall ! Alton Locke , Tailor and Poet . Chapman and Hall ! Devereux . By Sir E . Bulwer Lytton . Chapman and Hall ! The Law and Practice of Election Committees . By John Clerk , Esq . 8 . Sweet . The Reformation of the Nineteenth Century . By J . Rouge . E . Dentsch ! The History of the Battles ofLigny , Quatre Bras , and Waterloo . L . Booth ! Colburn' 8 United Service Magazine . Colburn and Co . Christian Examiner . Crosby , Nichols and Co . Lawson ' s Merchants' Magazine . R . Hastings . New Quarterly Review . No . IV . Hookham and Sons . Westminster Review . New Series . No . XIV . John Chapman . Village Life in Eyypt , with Sketches of the Said . By B . St . John . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology . John Churchill . The Crystal Palace and Park in 1853 . What has been Bone—What will be Done ? W . S . OrrandCo . Reasoner . Parts VII . and VIII . J . Watson .
Jfmifolm.
Jfmifolm .
We Should Do Our Utmost To Enccruxage Th...
We should do our utmost to enccruxage the Beautiful , for the . Useful encourages itself . —Goethe .
Vii. Harley-Street, Jan. 13, 1852. Gw§ O...
VII . Harley-street , Jan . 13 , 1852 . gw § ONLY write , rny dear Giorgio , to enclose the letter which I find 111 ty m £ nere fr ° Julie , as I have no time for much more . I returned | 1 | this morning with Yseult , and shall go b ack with her as soon as she gjPg summons me ; and , in the meantime , T have so much on mv mind that makes writing painful that I shall probably say no more than to tell you the disaster which befel us on Monday last , on our way with Edwardes to keep Twelfth Night at his friend ' s . We came to town early ; Edwardes and I went a hasty round to see divers patients , who were all very accommodating , and we set out for the railway by three o ' clock . Our party was the same as before , with the exception of Conway , whose absence seemed to cause manifest chagrin to Yseult . At least , she was much more thoughtful than she had been over night and in the morning , and mentioned him several times ; though , in point of fact , they had talked but little together , either on that day or on the Sunday ; and in the very evident friendship between them , I had never noticed anything more than friendship . On the Monday , her thoughtfulness made me watchful ; for the deep interest I have felt in her from the first sound of her name , makes me as watchful of her , especially when she is in pain , as a mother of her child . The short day was already closing , and the animated conversation winch Edwardes had provoked with Margaret was beginning to nag ; Yseult , who sate in the corner next to me , and opposite to Margaret , appeared to be dozing , in spite of the attack and retort which had been going on across the carriage . The darkness seemed to have silenced Stanhope ; ami perhaps Margaret supposed that the too exclusive attention which Edwardes had extorted from her to their sport of words had displeased the artist ; for I heard her answer his marked silence by saying , in the grave , soft voice of long familiar affection , " Are you not well ? " The words were scarcely out of her mouth before the rapid course of the tram came to a sudden pause—a sort of long , sliding obstiuetion , with a sound o grating and crushing ; a dizziness seemed to take possession of our carnage , which cracked and groaned , and was distorted with convulsive contractions , and then , in an instant , sank into a quiet wreck . One pause of silence then a hurst of shrieks ; and then a heavy moan , —a sigh of agony iron the whole train . I had already turned to Yseult , who said , both to m and Ndwanles , " I am quite safe ; but—Margaret !" The poor girl lay motionless . She had not shrieked—she <« " " ^ moan ; she made no answer to Stanhope ' s whispered but vehement , alinoa harsh , calls upon her name . We instinctively made way for JKlwar u , who was also unhurt . He bent over her , and somewhat relieved us y saying , " She is faint . Wait an instant ! " As he spoke , she » tirr * tQ it was only to shrink with pain . Iteviving consciousness enabled i « r < HtiHe her moans ; but she was evidently in terrible pain ; and a * »»« ^ huddled up amid the wrecks of the carriage , which had been sti u <; k " ^ ^ . corner , it was impossible to ascertain how she sutfered . lhc wjc ^ the < k » or had already been removed by people without ; I had go ^^ assist , and Edwardea waa trying to raise the wounded girl , but he c » l
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101852/page/20/
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