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788 T H E L E A D E R. C^Tqw^-g,
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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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This idea , in my ignorance , I half expected to find realized in the modern city , and when I found instead , just such houses as we had in the country , only bigger , and men and women just like my own father and mother , and instead of a " quadriga" met a hackney-coach , I was naturally disgusted with the great capital , and looked upon her greatness and glory as nothing more than shams , exclaiming *—« - ' ¦ _ . . . "Is this the mighty city , ? Is this all ? " ' " ' ., residenceand
My father ' s circumstances led him to choose Islington as a , we accordingly took up with the semi-gentility of that " suburban retreat northerly , " as Charles Lamb says . Islington is in my reminiscences the reverse of " merry . " The images which come crowding on my mmd as I look back to this period of my life , are those of dull squares , horribly resonan ^ all the morning of London cries , and whose tedium for the rest of the dreary day ( and in fine weather they seemed to me , somehow , more dreary than ever ) was unbroken save by the rare entrance of an itinerant " Punch ; " more often deepened into mournfulness by the melancholy strains of the barrel-organ . Places , too , I recollect in that neighbourhood , that
seemed to have been visited by all the blighting influences of a large city without enjoying any of its compensations;—small back streets , the abode evidently neither of the absolutely poor , nor of the comfortable middleclass , but bearing an aspect of sordid , pinched and struggling meanness , more painful to contemplate than downright poverty , because unrelieved by that sort of recklessness which generally accompanies the latter ;—streets , the uniformity of whose dingy black house-fronts is only broken by an occasional gin-shop or shop-window displaying Sunday newspapers and " back-slum" periodicals- —whose first-page , perchance , shows a wretched wood-cut of a masked cavalier , in slouched hat and cloak , threatening with
up-lifted dagger a slim-waisted lady with long curls , who kneels and holds up a crucifix ; with the causes and catastrophe of the harrowing scene set forth in frowzy type beneath , and summed up in the title of " The Bloody Revenge . " The strong dislike of these streets which I then felt , and feel to this day , was increased to horror by a fearful tragedy which occurred in one of them not far from where we then lived . One night a German jeweller murdered his wife and three children , and then committed suicide , and the bodies of the wretched man and his victims were first discovered by the servant , who lixed out of the house , on her return to it in the morning . " I recollect the
trembling and breathless curiosity with which , a few days afterwards , I walked down that street , taking care to keep on the opposite side of the way , and the sickening dread with which I heard ^ -description of the unhallowed and torch-lit burial of the murderer . Rises to memory also a vision of the long , dusty , populous " City Road , " with its never-ceasing stream of omnibuses , its shabby book-stalls , its green grocers' shops with their peeuliar fragrance , and occasionally , worse than all , —a crowded and pent-up graveyard . And here let me pause a moment to add my feeble voice to the cry of just indignation which has gone forth
against the abominable practice of burying the dead amidst the haunts and homes of the living . I shall not here urge the great and conclusive argument against it—its fatal effects upon the health of the community . These have been demonstrated by abler pens than mine , and demonstrated so clearly and convincingly , that the practice is doomed—however long the opposition of its interested upholders and the apathy of the public may avert its doom . What I deprecate now , is the saddening and humiliating influences which crowded burial-grounds in the midst of the sights and sounds of busy life exert upon all sensitive minds , and more especially those of the young . To me there are few more shocking and depressing
spectacles than the hurried funerals which are of daily occurrence m such places , in which the last words of peace and hope arc drowned in the roar of the busy stream that goes whirling by , and the sacred emotions of the mourners are exposed to the stare of the idle and unfeeling who look on as at a show . This objection may perhaps be regarded as " sentimental" by those who are not much affected by anything beyond the quantity and quality of their dinner and the state of the funds ; but it is one which I felt long before I was able cither to analy / . c or express it , ami I here record it on behalf of all , whether children or men , whose true instincts revolt against any outrage to the dignity and decency of the " last scene of all . "
Another reminiscence of my suburban life is of walks in the fields , which then terminated the fnst-encroaching streets and terraces of Pentonville , many of whose children they furnish with their only image of the country How different they were from those to which I had been accustomed The very gniaa seemed ranker and less fresh , the stagnant pools and claypits contrasted sadly with the clear " streamlets of the West , " and amid the smoke of the great city , and the poisonous vapour of the brick-kilns , the milk-factories of the Cockney cow-keepers seemed a mockery of the sweet barns and sheds , « " Warm with the brcnth of kino , " which I had left behind me in the lanes and fields 6 f Somersetshire . "
But I have one pleasant recollection of this period to set off against these rather dismal ones , —a visit to Drury-lane Theatre . The first visit to the theatre is an event that stands out in the memory of moat men , and its wonders and delights have been so admirably described by men of genius , that prudence bids me only say that to my imagination , depressed by my lonely wanderings , that visit was an escape into a fairy-land of light , colour , ami music , where a pent-up craving for beauty and merriment was revealed , and found a way . Hero tho vast crowd did not repel and drive
inward this feeling , as in the streets , but all seemed fused together in the genial atmosphere of sympathetic delight . " A noble spectacle ! Noble in mirth—Nobler in sacred fellowship of tears I I ' ve often asked myself what sight on earth Is worth the fancying of pur fellow-spheres ;' ¦ - ¦ _ And this is one—whole hosts in love with worth , Judging the shapes of their own hopes and fears . " Leigh Httnt .
But dull and chilling though my outward world was for the most part , and meagre as were its interests , I had already begun to find rich enjoyments and bright scenes in the world of fiction , —that refuge of the lonely , that refreshment of the weary , and blessed cordial of the sad ; and the want of companions and the absence of boyish pleasures mattered less to me now that I was able to wander at will "by the shores of old Romance , " through , the glades of merrie England , or over the Scottish heath , or in any part of that wide region , which the Magician of the North
" rules as his domain ; " now a lover of fair Margaret of Branksome , and ready to do mortal combat for her , with Lord Cranstoun and Sir William of Deloraine , both at once ; now travelling , on foot , up to Lon ' on , with Jeannie Deans , to get her sister ' s pardon from the Queen ; now with Quentin Durward , escorting two high-born damsels , through the " pleasant land of France , " and occasionally getting a sweet stolen interview with the younger and fairer , his ladye-love and mine , at a turret-window , or behind a grating , or in some such tantalising situation .
I should not like to read again my favourite books of this period- —the novels and poems of Sir Walter Scott , — -although I am fully aware that I should find in them much of meaning and interest , which was then hidden from me , and ; besides , should be able to form a more critical appreciation of their merits . Yet I would not , for all this , spoil the delicious first impression which remains upon iny mind . Indeed , the stern experience or actual life , disqualifies a man for entering into and enjoying the
highwrought scenes , and romantic incidents , which Scott drew with such a master-hand . The man reads adventures and romance , as one who looks on at a gorgeous pageant , which concerns him not , and coolly criticizes its arrangement , and the skill of its " getting-up . " The boy reads with an unconscious reference to his own future , with all its glorious possibilities , as yet ttndispelled by the cold touch of the actual , and his zest deepens " As he hears his days before him and the tumult of his ^ ife ,
Yearning for the large excitement that the coining years will yield . ' Fortunately for me , our removal from London , and my being again sent to school , put an end , for awhile , to my days and nights of fiction-reading . I say fortunately , because , in spite of the great delight , and , in some respects , benefit , which I found in it , I regard it as too stimulating a food for the young mind , unless taken sparingly , especially in cases such as mine , where there was an undue tendency to introspection . The greater the enjoyment of fiction in the young , the greater is their danger from it ; and , one truth which I have purchased by experience , and which I am anxious to communicate , is , that there is an appropriate season for each of the powers of the mind and graces of the character , in all their degrees , and that the premature ripening of any one of these will be dearly paid for , sooner or later , by the equally unseasonable immaturity of some other .
Therefore , I grieve , when * ' Boyhood invades the phantasies of youth , Rocked in imagination ' s golden arms , And leaves its own delights of healthy truth , For immature and visionary charms . "—R . M . MlLNES . The object of education , using that word in its most comprehensive sense , as including all the influences which can be brought to bear upon
the young , is the harmonious culture of all the faculties of their nature , moral , intellectual , and physical . And , if it be said that genius is often only an excessive manifestation of some one mental power , I would reply that there must be a certain development of the other powers , of the whole character , in fact , as a basis for that genius to become efficacious , and not a mere torment to its possessor ; and , further , that genius , where it does really exist , will manifest itself in greater strength and perfection , for the due cultivation of the whole nature .
My recollections now carry me back again to the West , to a cathedral city , in which I spent the next ten years of my life . That place , wherever I may be , is always more interesting to me than any other . It is natural for a man to regard , with strong and peculiar feeling , the scenes amid which he grew up , from boyhood to manhood . Here , most of nil , his character was formed . Here he found himself , when ripened reflection first brought the sense of personality , with its accompanying responsibilities and resolves . Here the " sweet indefinite desires . " of youth came thronging
ifhick upon him , and cast a' -glory on his path . Here his . young ambition first burned within him . Here he formed his first friendships—friendships such as he will never form again , with their complete and unsuspecting interchange of bosom thoughts and confidences . And here ho looked up , in boyish hero-worship , to his young superiors in boldness or cleverness , the advantage , perchance , of a few seasons' seniority , with an admiration greater , if leas discriminating , than he now pays to the objects of » nation ' s applause .
But there are other reasons , why the place in which such years are spent should be more deeply remembered than any subsequent scene . Wo know it more intimately . We make acquaintance with it , when our senses a **
788 T H E L E A D E R. C^Tqw^-G,
788 T H E L E A D E R . C ^ Tqw ^ -g ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 13, 1853, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13081853/page/20/
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