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aacter of Royston Keene , as the type of the class in tlie army he represents , than m any work we « ould mention . Cecil Treyelyan is a pretty mcinre , and that is all ; if her mind is , as the writer -would have his readers believe , as beautiful as her figure , she never throughout the work displays any greater abilities than an ordinary young lady . We ire not advocates of the Ideal School of fiction ; but , on the other hand , we do not care ior j the » ovel in which the leading points delineated are such as are despicable inhuman nature without our sympathies are awakened in the good and beautiful Sso . Besides , the novelist has a higher task to uerfoxm than mere delineation of character : lie is a teacher , and perhaps the art of teaching , _ in a fiction , is the most important branch of the art .
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JONATHAN OLDAKER ; Or , LEAVES FROM THE DIARY OF A COM 31 ERCIAL TRAVELLEE . JJy J . Crawford Wilson , author of "The Village Pearl , " &c— Ward and Lock . Whek " Jonathan Qldaker , " was first published we recommended strongly to the favourable con - aideration of our readers ; its price then precluded it from being read by the large body of men of -whom it treats . We are pleased , therefore , to receive a second and much cheaper edition , which ¦ will bring it within the reach of all . travellers whether commercial or railway . The present edition has been revised and some additions made . What more can we say than reiterate our former op inion by recommending it to the notice of the public ? .
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'I'HH FRIENDS , FOES , AND ADVENTURES OF 1 A . DY MORGAN . —Dublin : W . B . Kelly . As much light as possible should be thrown on i 3 ie character and surroundings of Lady Morgan , and this reprint from the "Irish Quarterly Review " will he welcome " . This extraordinary lady was the daughter of strolling players , and was born , not on land , but on sea , when her parents were crossing the Irish channel . Owensqn , her fatter , -was proud of her ; and Ned Jjysaght , the extem-^ pore Irish poet , her god-papa , cherished her , wlien . an orphan , till his own death in 1809 . Under such influences , Sydney Owensbn was a verse-¦ writer from the nursery . The name of Sydney for " the infant muse " was selected by her fatlier
in recollection of the benevolent government of Sir Henry Sydney in the reign of Elizabeth , during which period the Protestant family , from which he was collaterally descended , had settled in the "West of Ireland . There are many amusing anecdotes of Owenson ' s theatrical career , and of : $ he Dublin theatre in particular , under Mossop's management . Owenson seems to have excelled in Irish characters , such as Sir Lucius G Trigger and to have resembled our own Tyrone Powex in their gentlemanly assumption . "Where was " the infant inuse " educated P has "been often asked . The question is here answered . At Miss Crowe's seminary in North Earl-street , . Dublin .
" In the Dublin Directory from 1787 to 1801 , the name ? Elizabeth Crowe , milliner , 20 , North Earlstreet , ' appears on record . That this establishment 3 bad some connexion with ' the eminent seminary ' up stairs , Are are inclined to think likely . The local customs of the time sanctioned such a combination . IBvery- student of the literary history of Ireland to-¦ warda . tlie close of the last century , is familiarly acquainted with the name of Samuel Whyte , the accomplished preceptor of the Duke of Wellington , Sheridan , Moore , and Em met ? . Whyte was a man of distinguished erudition , and a poet of no mean calibre . His seminary was , as Moore ' s * X / ife of Sheridan' informs us , the Jurat in the metropolis . Wilson ' s Directories of the period thus notice it i—• "Wbyte , Samuel , Master of the " * iX ™ $ l ° &f ? Gxwnmni H 75 , Grafton-atrcof Wliyto , William , grocer . ) " When we flnd that Whyte ' a * famous academy
for young gentlemen was admittedly none the worse for its proximity to figs , sugar , and bottled cider , it would be hardly just or fair to pooh ! pooh 1 Miss Crowe ' s . seminary for young ladies , because the shop below may have displayed a large and varied assortment of colossal hats , and other obsolete , but once fashionable articles . of female head-gear . " Sydney Owenson was educated as a Protestant , but was not at all sectarian in her views . Many
of the . effusions of the early period of her life describe the . associations and scenery of Sligo , where she resided for some time , as a visitor to Sir Malby Crofton , of Langford House . It was in 1801 that her first volume of verse was published —a tiny book , inaccurately printed . But it gained a circulation in consequence of the influence of the Countess of Moira . In time the authoress herself became sought for , and Sydney Owenson became the lioness of metropolitan j > arties . Sbe sang to the harp , "which she played . 1
In 1802 sheappeared as a novelist , and " St . Clair ; or , the Heiress of Desmond , " saw the lirrht . It was followed by lt The Novice of St . Dominiek , " and that , in 1805 , by " The Wild Irish Girl . " It is not necessary to pursue her biography any further . Her marriage with Sir Charles Morgan calls : for no remark . They spent their time in travelling , and her book on France is a chef dCouvre , The critic of the Irish Quarterly defends her knowledge of the French language . The moral that he draws from her life is the triumph of female authorship over critical virulence . On this topic he is most indignant . Here is a tirade !
. " The blows aimed at her own fair fame she made recoil upon her assailants . The finest poetic genius that had ever shore on the world had been already quenched prematurely by the deadly grasp of John Wilson Croaker ; a violent attack in the Quarterly Review killed poor unresisting Keats . An unadorned slab , almost smothered by rank weeds , in the churchyard of St . Werburgh , Dublin , communicates to the reader the melancholy fact , that Edwin , one of the most promising Irish actors , died in 18 Q 5 , from a broken heart , caused by an illiberal criticism in Croker ' s ' Familiar , Epistles on the Irish Stage . ' . ' There is nothing so detestable , ' says , Addison , ' in the eyes of all good men , as defamation or satire aimed at particular persons . It deserves the utmost detestation and discouragement of all who have either the love of their country or the honour of their religion at heart . I have not scrupled to rank those who deal in these pernicious arts of writing with the murderer and assassin . Every honest man sets as high a value upon his good name as upon life itself : and I cannot but think that those who privily assault the one , could destroy the other , might they do it with the same security and impunity . " To virulent criticism the brilliant Montesquieu also fell an unresisting victim . Aristotle having been accused by critics of ignorance and vanity , poisoned himself in the intensity of his
bitterness . Cummyne , an eminent quaker , declared , shortly before his death , that some ill-natured criticisms in the public papers were hurrying him to eternity . Hereclitus , persecuted by his countrymen , retired in disgust from the world , Anaxandrides , dreading . hostile criticism , burned his dramas . Bacine died of extreme sensibility to a rebuke , and oxr claimed that one severe criticism outweighed all the gratification which the concentrated praise of his admirers could produce . The melancholy death of Dr . HawkeswoTth is attributable to a similar circumstance . Marsham burnt the second part of his valuable " Chronology" because some flippant critics assailed the first . Pelisson records the death of a prpmieipg young tragic author from the effects of L'Etoile ' s criticism . Disraeli , among other sadly interesting instances , reminds us that Bit son . went mad from the persecution which lie underwent from ignorant reviewers , and died under the hallucination that they all surrounded his death-bod armed with weapons jfor Ms destruction . Tug learned Abbe Cassagne also went mad , and died from a stroke of Boileau ' s literary criticism , Scott of Am well never recovered from a ludicrous criticism- Batteux became a prey to excessive grief . Newton suffered from the malignant jealousy of Iaebnitz and others , and abandoned the publication of a valuable work on optics in consequence of some premature cavils . Innumerable instances might be cited to show the number of brilliant minds who la all ages have weakly succumbed to the poisoned shaft of ambushed antagonism , What a vast amount of invaluable litorary and scientific achievement have been thus lost irrevocably to the world I We do not deprecate adverse eritioisch when offered fo&Xky and
conscientiously 5 bub we detest to see it made the vehicle of malignant assault from private or party motives , as was the case with the majority of the examples we have cited / Had Sydney Morgan b ared that heart which blazed with pure patriotism to the dastard stab , and' submitted her dead body to be trampled upon , as Aristotle , Bacine , Hawkesworth Bitson , Cassagne , Montesquieu , and Keats , submitted ' and were trampled , this memoir would have had but an inferior moral to dignify it That brilliant woman , however , grappled With the arm which sought to destroy her fair reputation , and possibly her life , and like the good fairy crushing the evil genius in a -pantomime , she smote the arch-foe to the earth , and placed her tiny foot , cased in white satin , upon his ponderous coat of mail . There are two sides to this question . But we forbear .
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THE GITANAf&A BALLAD OF SPALN : and otlur Poems . By AriellTliorn . W . Kcut and Co . So far as easy Versification constitutes a poet , Mr . Thorn is entitled ^ to the appellation , though sometimes his ear deceives him as to rhyme , e . sr .:
—"Though my days are passed in mourning . Some sure instinct / true and strong-, Tells me that a laope is -dawning , . . And it will not tarry long ' . " This is even worse than a mere Cockney ism , being an inipeifect rhyme as well . Young poets especially should attend to these little things . They should first learn to be correct . Here , again , we have a more outrageous specimen of the Cockaigne style : — "And my mother , if she saw me With a bent and troubled brow , Drew forth books aiid letters . / or me . Saying-, 'Let lneteach thue now . '"
Despite , however , these defects , there is a pleasant vein of feeling and thought in these stanzas . Some of the poems are better than the ballad . The following is a favourable specimen of the author ' s best moods : — -
FLOWERS . i-The heath-bells on the moorland , The harebells on the lea , Nod to the slumberous murmur Of the hea-vy honey bee ; The fair and lragile blossoms Outshnkcn . to the breeze Look up to greet the glimpses Of sunlight through the trees . 11 . The garden rose outswelleth Her crimson-lighted urn , The pallid day-beams ( ill it , And into g-fory burn ; The velvet pansy turneth Her soft budLb to the sun , And the curled and folded petals Stand open , one by one . in . The Night Flowers hear the plashing Of dew in evory cup , The silver ohltnc it ringeth "VV ' akoth the sleepers up ; And through the starry vltfils , Like nuiiB mat wako to pray , They scatter fragrant lucciiwu Until tho dtiwu of day . IV . In gardens and in hedgerows Tho painted potnls llo , Down In tho shaded forest WHoro no stop passes by . They light tlao darkened alloys , They gon » tuo grassy sod , And into crowded cIUoh They bring" 11 smile from God . V . But lo I upon , their boauty A human touch has . passed , From Edon ' s curse some shadow Upon tholr light is oast ; Tho trombllag leaven drop downward , TUo ooloura faint away , Tho soared and withered blossoms Droop into ( lull decay . VI . Leave , loavo thorn in tho moadow , Nor bring thorn from thu wood To ffrftoo wltli fading boauty Man s droai and dark abode ; Amid thy braidod tresses Bind not tho frngijo poms , Nor close wltliln thy girdlo Who Utho cund slondor atoms . v « . Some touch of lmmnn sadnosa Would fall upon thorn booh , Our Wight would ovorgathor Their abort nnd sunny noon s Then leave thorn in tho meadow , And pass tholr boauty by , Nor oloud lt -with tho shadow Of tUy humanity .
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* "Mr . Q , of the Black Hook , now in his oighty-ilrst Tear , ie , with one exception , tho last surviving pupil of wlrhyte ' s . That gentleman is our authority for tho etatoanont ttiat tho lato Duko of Wellington rooolvod inatruo-SHone at Whyte ' s Academy . Mr . ' Q has hoard Ills old ¦ p receptor vauntingly declare , that ho had flogged the breach Srtho Bubjugator of Tippoo Snlb . How vastly would Mr . ' 2 . " ?{ £ " P nr l <* o havo boon inoroasad , had ho lived to bonst J « BW conqueror of Napoleon ftadf been under » ilah « nd , ^ ffinSv ^^ SS ? ^ . " > lod <** mercy « t his kooos I Mr . Q— -r SfSwi 2 : P Aj VIlly <; 0 ' * ftat 0 »» d talent for flogging wore not iffiSJjJIJ ' \ * irW ; SduQors ' B passion in tho same alreotlon . Alt SS 2 gft » 5 *» ,, riglA arm was short nimoBt to doformity , it ariSSSSra ^ L ?^?!^ 9 t > sorvoB Mr . Q , «• wouM now •—* mH » w UAwtfoVlhati an Insolent attempt atanBdult
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andbattoryin tho public streets . " Tho very Interesting rominlBoonces of Hwumet with which Mr . Q- —hasfavourea us , we shall ubo on boioo future ocoaelon , Whyto died October 4 th , 1811 . "
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113 $ THE LEADER . [ No , 5 Q 1 . -, Oct ., 2 fiC ' 1859
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1859, page 1198, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2318/page/10/
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