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    Messes . Smith and Eldeb , have just issued a new edition of Mr . Thackeray's Esmond in . a single volume , uniform with the volumes of his collected Miscellanies , This is a seasonable publication to those of Mr . Thackeray ' s admirers who may not already have on their shelves his first , and , as yet , only complete . historic novel . They will he glad to possess and re-read it again for its own sake , and as a necessary introduction to the Virainians . While all Mr .

    Thackeray's woris deserve not only to be read but to be studied , Esmond has special claims to careful reperasal . Its publication constituted a new era in his career as a writer of fiction . The ' Story of Queen Anne ' s Reign was new both in the subject and the way of treatment . Hitherto his stories had been conGned to the severely faithful portraiture of existing society , but in Esmond he appeared as . an historic novelist . The task the great humorist now proposed to himself was evidently a wider and nobler one than any yet accomplished . He intended to sketch not only contemporary manners , but he previous state of society out of which they had arisen , to become , in . the largest sense , the painter of modern English life . With this object in view , he naturally began at the commencement of the eighteenth century , the

    revolution of 1688 being the gulf which separates the old forms of English . life and society from the new . This was a period , too , peculiarly favourable far the exercise of his art . To the novelists of action and passion , who naturally seek the materials of their stories in the stormy periods of war and bloodshed , of revolution and violent social changes , the reign of Queen Anne is at . best but . a barren era . But Thackeray is quite at home in the brilliant routine of that artificial and highly polished society . He is characteristically the painteiynot of humanity simply , or of the passions in their most natural manifestation , but of man as seen in society , and of the passions as developed under special social forms . This is , in fact , the main difference between the two great novelists of the day . With all his accumulation of

    characteristic detail , Dickens is the poet , not of society , but of humanity , finding in . the lowest walks of common life—amongst the outcasts of society beneath the rags and filth—something to reverence and love . Thackeray is the ^ poet of society , looking for the true feeling and manly action that exist amidst its frivolities and hypocrisies , and picturing with truthful charity what he finds . The . more artificial and elaborate any state of society is , the more rich and tempting the materials it affords to one able to use them aright . And Thackeray is at home amongst the wits of Queen ANSI's reign , not simply because he sympathizes with their way of

    life , but also because he shares their peculiar powers , combining in a rare degree with the satiric force of Swift , Steei / s kindly humour and Addison's fine reflectiveness . The latter qualities ia particular are moa-e largely developed in Esmond than in the author's earlier works . Both the isubject chosen , and the way of treatment adopted , favoured this change . In the autobiography of a noble-minded but saddenedman , a good deal of quaint and serious reflection was natural enough , wliile the tone adopted throughout was far moje tender and sad than bitter and satirical . This naturally disappointed many of Thackeray ' s early admirers , who missed in Esmond the

    force and sarcastic bitterness that had specially delighted them in Vanify Fair . But , notwithstanding this , the ch-clc of Thackeray's readers was much increased by the-publication of Esmond , many of his old enemies in the sentimental classes having been won over by its scenes of tenderness and sorrow . But apart from its special merits , Esmond must be read just now as an introduction to the Virginians . It is quite impossible fully to understand and enjoy the latter story without a good knowledge of the former . The two numbers of the Virginians already published abound with

    references which can only be properly appreciated by those who have the previous history of the Esmond family fresh in their recollection . The new talc is in the strictest sense the sequel of the old , not only introducing the same characters , but continuing their history at a later period ; the intermediate events being briefly indicated as connecting liiiks . Curiously enough , top , a promise or prophecy of the Virginians ia given in Esmond . The germ of the story is evidently the following passage , which occurs in the touching dialogue botween Beatrix and Esmond , in which he finally resumes his hopeless suit : —

    " You have had my heart fiver since then , suck as it was ; and such as you were ,, I eared for no other woman . What little reputation I have-won , it was that you miglit be pleased with it : and , indeed , it is not much ; and I think a hundred fools in tlio army have got and deserved quite as much . " Was there something in the air of that dismal old Castlewood that made us all gloomy , mid dissatisfied , and lonely under its ruined old roof ? "We were all so , even when together and united , as it seemed , following oux separate schemes , each m we Bate round the table . " '' iDaar , dreary old place ! " crieB Beatrix . " Mamma hath never had the heart to back tluthcr ince

    go « we loft it , when—never mind how inimy years ago , " and slie Hung K ., Jr * i ' mul lookcd ° ver her fair shoulder at the mirror superbly , as if uno Baul , * ' Time , I defy you . " « "h ™ 5 * " " u i Earoond ' \ ° li «< l tho art , n « she owned , of divining many of her S ^ rtf > ? " 11 C T r mrd tO , l 0 Ok in the el ( 1 " s sti » ¦ « lld «"' y *>« Ple « sc < l by tho truth it tolls you . As for mo , do yon knew what my bcIkotig is ? I think of aHki , Frank to give me the Virginia estate King Charles gave our gnmdfiither . ( She gave £ ITEV 5 liy ' t" ? mUCl " 8 tO Rny' ' K rnild f «^ 'or , indeed ! Thank you . Mr . ? £ IZ \ ' -+ I - " ° ^ yOU flr ° thinki"K ot my bar-siniater , and so am I . A mnn Cflwaot get over it m this country ; unless , indeed , he wears it across a king ' s arms , wU < r o Ub a highly honourable coat ; and I am thinking of retiring into tlie

    plantations , and building myself a wigwam in the -woods , and perhaps , , if I want -company suiting myself with a squaw . We will send your ladyship furs over for ihe . winter ; and , when you are old , well provide -you with , tobacco . I am not quite clever enough , or not rogue enough—I know not which—for the old world . I may make a place for myself ia the new , whkh is not so full ; and Found a family there . When you are a mother yourself , and a great lady , perhaps I shall send you over from the plantation some day a little barbarian that is half Esmond half Mohock , and you will be kind to him for his father ' s sake , who was , after all , your kinsman - and-whom you loved a little . " " Wnat folly you are talking , Harry , " says Miss Beatrix , looking with her great eyes .

    " 'Tis sober earnest , " says Esmond . And , indeed , the scheme had "been 'dwelling' a good deal in his mind for some time past , and especially since his return home , when lie found how hopeless , and even degradingrto himself , his passion -was . "iNo , " says he , then , " I have tried half a dozen -times now . I can bear being away from you well enough ; but being with you is intolerable ( another low curtsy on Miss Beatrix ' s part ) , and I will go . I have enough to buy axes and guns for my men , and beads and blankets for the savages ; and 111 go and live amongst them . " The ' little harbariau , ialf Esmond half Mohock / from , the plantations , arrives , and is introduced to Beatrix in the first number of the new tale .

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    Mr . Charles Mikdieton . has in preparation a new Life of Sheu ^ sy , the result of much study and investigation , and of great sympathy with tie poet ' s exalted genius . We understand that it will include a republication of the Queen Mai , witlialarge number of MS . emendations in SheiJiEy's own handwriting , found at his residence at Marlow , Buckinghamshire . These alterations are for the most part decided improvements on the original , which appears to have teen relieved of its youthful redundancies and common-places . They are undoubtedly genuine , aad will be regarded with considerable interest .

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    MONTAIGNE THE ESSAYIST . Montaigne the Essayist . A Biqgraply . By Bayle St . John . With Illustrations . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . Mb . J 3 ayij 3 Sx . John , before writing this book * had thoroughly qualified himself to become the biographer of Montaigne . The ground was unoccupied ; no Life of the Essayist had yet appeared . Fifteen years ago he formed the plan , and every interval of opportunity during that long period has been devoted to its elaboration . In 1844 , indeed , a first chapter was published ; but Mr . St . John then felt that large aad penetrating researches would be necessary before he could hope to complete the biography of Montaigne , one of the princes of French literature ,, the peer , yet , in some respects , the contrast of JEtabelai 6 , who imprinted his influence on Shakspeare and Bacon , on Swift and Sterne , on Pope and Butler , whose writings have been singularly neglected by Englishmen of the modern generations , and iwhose

    character has ^ often been strangely misrepresented in France . Sixty years after the discovery of -printing , forty after the discovery of America , fifteen after Luther opened his crusade , Montaigne was born . His peculiar education , his friendship for Estienne de la Boetie , his studies at his ancestral chateau , his Essays , his veiled scepticism , and some other broad facts connected with his career , are vaguely known , as Mr . St . John remarks . ; but hitherto his story has never been . adequately told . We have to examine , therefore , the literary title-deeds upon which Mr . St . . John founds his claims to rank as the first and only biographer of the great Michel de Montaigne . The Essays , he says , are , , and must remain , the chief authority . But lie has felt it necessary to be extremely cautious in their use , the statements they contain being occasionally invalidated by actual evidence from other sources . These desultory materials it was difficult to collect . No French or English writer had attempted what Mr . St . John has accomplished . Dr . Pai'en , indeed , had disinterred a mass of testimonies to the events of

    the Essayist ' s life , and had been followed by Gustave Brunet , Viel-Castel , Jubinal , Griin , and others ; Leon Feugere , Guizot , Villeraain , Sainte-Beuve , PhilareteChasles , Michelet , and Henri Martin have also been laboriously consulted . But it seems perfectly true that special authors have in many instances created an ideal Montaigne instead of describing the actual one;—that the Essayist has been converted bv successive critics into a Pascal , a Malebranche , a gentlemanly sceptic , in imitation of Bayle , a scoffer , a Capuchin friar , a Mr . Emerson , a property appertaining to Dr . Payen , and a man after M . Grun ' s own heart—that is to say , a Prefet of the Gironde . But when we note , in Mr . St . John ' explanatory chapters , the great range of inquiry and the multiplicity of documents , we are not surprised that upwards of two hundred and fifty years should have elapsed before a life of Montaigne was competently written . Wo think it is one of the principal merits of Mr . St . John ' s volumes that they are pervaded by a spirit of fine discrimination , thatrthe tone is jiowhere , exaggerated , that all the aspects of ¦ the Essayist ' s genius and disposition are characterized with subtle

    exactitude , and that tlie author ' s unconcealed sympathy with his subject never overpowers his endeavour to be accurate and impartial . Thus we have not a eulogy , but that which , is infinitely more valuable , tin estimate . While Mr . St . John's ardour led him to undertake a pilgrimage to the ancient Chateau de Montaigne , where he was hospitably treated by Monsieur and Madame de Curial , an instinct of justice follows him even into the library interior—sketched from the admirable painting by Henry Wallis—to the foot of Montaigne ' s tower , into his garden , and into the castcllet of La Boiitie , with all of which he has made himself familiar , and which are illustrated in the several woodeuta accompanying the narrative . Tlie portrait of the

    Essayist is admirable—the portrait of a Gascon of Gascons . The biography must be read in its entirety . From any mere outline the points that confer originality upon the book would infallibly be missed . Mr . St . John , tracing a continuous series of incidents and developments , contrives to present , in each chapter , a cluster of harmonious details ; in homage to the patrician ancestry of the Essayist he glances , of course , at his family derivation , and , finding it honourable , passes on through the adventures of Pierre Eyquom , to tho birth , early education , youthful studies , and college life of Michel , to his first days at Court , and the terrible rebellion of 1548—an episode singularly illustrative of tho social state of Franco in the middle of the sixteenth cejutury ,. In boyhood , Montaigne profeeses to

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    Critics are . mot the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They a © . not make la-ws—they interpret and try to enforce them ?—Edinburgh Review . : ¦ ? ' " ' , ¦ . ¦ . ' " . ' : - .

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    Ko . 403 , December 12 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . TJL 91

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 12, 1857, page 1191, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2221/page/15/