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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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292 Dovetoti ; or the Man of many Impulses *
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grey , dashed by at a tremendous pace , exciting a cloud of dust , which was not very readily dissipated . Two young gentlemen sate upon the box , one of whom acted as coachman , with all the ease of a practised whip . This apparition of the carriage-and-four completely altered the face of affairs . Mrs Doveton began to think th ^ t her former notion , that there was " no neighbourhood , " was all a mistake ; the Miss Dovetons to believe that there might be shops , a library , and a milliner ; and the family settled at Meadow-bank . The author is particularly happy in his description of schooldays . We become better acquainted with Gerard after he is sent to a large private school , where , notwithstanding his peculiarities , he is loved , and makes his way . At first he is made the protege ( to use the technical term ) of one John Smith , the ' Man of Sense ' of the book . There is no one-sidedness in the estimate of character in this work ; and those who prefer a man of sense to a man of impulse , will find one here : —the head boy at school ; taking honours at the University ; working hard and thriving well ; liked by everybody ; and always very comfortable , and very much respected . The contrast is excellently kept up between the two friends , for friends they always continue . Smith , of course , excites the curiosity of Doveton immediately : —
" But there was one thing that astonished me very much . Nobody seemed to acknowledge that lie was gifted with any shining qualities , and yet he seemed to do every thing much better than any body else . He was not allowed to be clever , yet he was the best scholar in the academy ; he was * no cricketer , ' yet he headed every score ; he had ' no idea whatever of fighting / and yet he was the champion of the school . * This was sheer envy /—not in . the least . Nobod y envied Smith , and for this reason every body liked him . He was popular , because he took great care that no one should ^ / ee / his superiority . " Smith used to say to Doveton , " Take care that you don ' t become a visionary , " and used to advise him not to read poetry- —yet all in vain . He did leave off reading poetry , for he had a high respect for his monitor , but he had only the more time to dream : —
" I do not think that I saw things aright ; my mind was enveloped with a peculiar atmosphere—a misty one—and whatever it looked upon , wore an aspect undefined and shadowy . Seen through this delusive medium , palpable realities became dim abstractions . I beheld qualities , and not persons—feelings , and not actions—wide principles , and not narrow details . I had a sort of language of my own ; and I thought of my . school-fellows , not by their proper names , but by the distinguishing characteristics of their idiosyncracies . Thus , one was Gentleness , another Anger , a third Genius , and so on . " A
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1837, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1831/page/37/
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