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May 11, 1850.] &W &£&&$*+ 163
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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In the Exhibition of Medieval Industry a...
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THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LIFE. By G. II. LE...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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May 11, 1850.] &W &£&&$*+ 163
May 11 , 1850 . ] & W & £ && $ * + 163
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We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — v GOBTHE .
In The Exhibition Of Medieval Industry A...
In the Exhibition of Medieval Industry and Art , at the house of the Society of Arts in the Adelphi , one beautiful object escaped attention . It was the Bronze Vase , or Cinerary Urn , represented above : it is about two feet eight inches high ; it is stated to have been found at Ruvo , near Bari , in Calabria . Of the same period and style of execution as that preserved in the Elgin Room , it is , however , a much finer example of antique workmanship . The Vase is the property of Lord De Mauley .
Pc01905
The Apprenticeship Of Life. By G. Ii. Le...
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LIFE . By G . II . LEWES . SECOND EPISODE . —THE INITIATION OF LOVE . Chap . IV . —A Chapter on Love . It is impossible to paint happiness : let me then simply say that Armand and Hortense were happy . What images would adequately represent that deep repose of the soul when every desire is fulfilled , when every faculty has its healthy exercise ? The quiet of a mountain lake , mirroring a summer sky in its pellucid depths , when the leaping of a trout or the wandering of a lazy cloud are incidents to attract the attention of the poet who muses by its side—this will give some hint of the serenity of their lives ; but it gives none of the fervent passion which glowed underneath that calmness .
They loved . Is not that phrase eloquent enough . What can be added which may render it clearer ? Love defies analysis and description from its mystery and familiarity . " What is love ? " asks Shelley in a magnificent passage . " Ask him who lives what is life ; ask him who adores what is God ! " Here is subtly indicated the mixture of mystery and familiarity of the passion , no less than its ideality and universality . Love is a diviner life . Life is the activity of our organization ; love is the life of our passions . There is a foolish remark which some of my readers ( not you , dear madam ! nor you , judicious sir !) have assuredly made some time ago . I did not refute it , because I scorned to interrupt the narrative with refuting such a remark . " A woman so much his senior , " forsooth ! That astonishes you , does it ?
That appears incredible ? My good friend , do use your eyes a little , and see what is around you . Is it not a matter of almost universal experience that boys fall in love with women much older than themselves ? Did not one of the wisest men that ever lived—Shakespeare—one whose taste in woman and knowledge of the finest parts of their nature never was surpassed—did not this poet of poets and true woman-lover marry one eight years his senior ? You say , he repented it . ... Perhaps so ; but he did it . Nay , had you asked him at the time , he could have given you very cogent reasons why he did it .
But , to the matter in hand . If , sir , you do not understand how Armand and Hortense could love each other , my answer is simple : Be ignorant ! I tell you on my own authority that they did . We can never penetrate the " wherefore" in love , simply , I believe , because love is an instinct—one of the primary instincts of our nature to be accepted as an ultimate fact which no analysis can get beyond . What is love ? It is sometimes said to be a combination of passion with friendship . But , if you consider it , you will see that such a definition does not disengage the question from any of its serious difficulties . How will it explain love at first sight ? No friendship there / How will it account for lore persisting against neglect , against even scornful rejection ? There cannot be friendship without reciprocity .
Love I believe to be an instinct which moves one human being towards a complete identification with some other being of the opposite sex . It is fierce as an instinct ; unreasoning as an instinct ; powerful and imperious as an instinct . It is not mere desire ; neither is it moral affinity ; it is a primary instinct , and to be accepted as such . It is a larger and a nobler passion in some men than in others , simply because some men are of larger , nobler natures . Being an instinct which calls the lowest and the highest faculties into action , it moves the man according to his nature ; and , as in most men the lowest faculties are the most energetic , so is love generally little more than a sensual passion ' Perfect love is that wherein the instincts of our moral as well as of our physical nature receive energetic satisfaction .
Because love is an instinct , it remains a mystery , and defies all calculation . We are not " judicious " in love ; we do not select those whom we " ought to love , " but those whom we cannot help loving . What Julia sees in Mr . Smith may be a mystery to Jones , but it is none to Julia . Chap . V . —The Lesson op Life . Hortense and Armand had now been married a year . They were , as I told you , supremely happy . Not a moment of ennui shadowed their souls . To tell the whole truth I must not omit the mention of certain rare and brief quarrels , for the best of lovers will quarrel sometimes , I believe , out of a vague unconscious desire for some change in their sensations . But these little flashes of summer lightning betokened no tempestuous weather ; they only told of the overcharged atmosphere .
The influence of this new life was very strikingly manifested in Armand * s development . His whole nature expanded . His intellect , without losing any of its energy , became more subtle and deliberative as life itself became more complex and profound to him . Love not only strengthens the soul , it enlarges and deepens its capacities . What puberty is to the youth , that is love to the man ; the opening of new and infinite possibilities of intense . life hitherto unsuspected . Life has not simply larger aspects to the man than to the boy , it presents aspects generically different ; and the same difference exists between the man who has loved and the man who has not loved . The deep heart , with its profound capacities of feeling , is the source of higher wisdom than the deep intellect with its profound capacities of reasoning ; conjoin the two and you have the Great Man .
The influence of Hortense was incalculable . Her deep and loving nature called forth all the potency of his . If her intellect was less than her heart , less considerably than his , yet her greater experience of life gave her a certain superiority over him , and invested her conversation with a peculiar charm . In visiting his poor , and mingling with his tenants , he learned also much that no books could teach him , and which , in after days , became of important service , viz ., a knowledge of the condition , feelings , hopes , and wants of the People . His democratic studies had thus a practical definite shape given them by his own direct experience of the defectiveness of social arrangements and of what the people were fitted to receive in the way of amelioration . One day the post brought this laconic epistle : — " My dear Nephew , —Your grandmother ' s health is rapidly failing . She wishes to see you . if you want to see her again come at once . Bring your wife ; we both desire to know her . " LUCIEN DE FaYOL . "
Armand had not seen his uncle since his expulsion from the chateau on account of his conversion ; but he had written to communicate his marriage , and both from his uncle and father had received very polite replies . Hortense was a good match : she was a Fayol and wealthy ; what more could they desire ? His affection for his grandmother was deep and reverential , so he lost no time in departing with Hortense for the chateau , where they were both received with great cordiality by the Baron and the Baronne . The next day Armand ' s father arrived ; and thus there was quite a family party collected . The Baronne had rallied , and was again in her usual health and quiet spirits ; but having assembled her family around her , she would not hear of their quitting her that summer .
Hortense was in a peculiar position : she half shocked half fascinated them all . Her Republicanism was very ill received by the Baron and the Colonel , staunch Royalists , as they were ; her St . Simonianism flurried the dear old Baronne , who had indeed heard of such doctrines , but who had always associated them in her mind with the most dissolute and desperate of the outcasts of society , and who was singularly puzzled to hear them from the lips of a young , lovely , quiet , loving , indolent woman , whose motions bespoke her aristocratic breeding , and whose tendencies were all the reverse of dissolute or anarchial , At first the Baronne thought Hortense was playing
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 11, 1850, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11051850/page/19/
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