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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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Untitled Article
doWifc Vilification by cottunon use , ham been framed * g for A mmpt giants in a giant world . The more moderate among us , in A&iu * riHtfg tBe wonders of a gale of wind at sea , would scarcely be so . narrotf * minded as to talk of waves rising thirty or forty feet , instead of \ mdu $ ? tains high . How should you credit that a man could be wet througli twfo coats , unless he asseverated that it rained ' as if heaven and , earth
wj ^ e coming together / at the least ? ' When the louse feeds / says Buffon , ' the blood is seen to rush like a torrent into the stomach / Cfotild one have said more , in severe justice , of a lion ?"—pp . 66 , 6 ? . Our author , however , very sensibly gives the preference to the above class over the opposite—that which manifests a constant disposition to " cold-blooded and penurious exactness . "
" The whole host of long-bow men , light troops and heavy ; are fitr less annoying , and , paradoxical as it may appear , less hostile to thfe more essential parts of truth , than the little teasing tribe , the minute higgling ' , worshippers of matter-of-fact . " I look upon these miserable fribblers as the most intolerable plagues that go about to disturb the ease , cordiality , and trusting freedom , of
familiar conversation . One of these , among a company of lively men , id as bad as the * Six Acts . ' There is no speaking before him ; he lies in wait for every trivial lapse , and is ready to arrest on the sgot eyft unimportant misnomer of time , or place , or person . He will stop a gooa anecdote , just before its finest moment , to ask for its credentials ; ajid
qfa pn the denouement of a pathetic tale to . question its parish . Wftti ah their professed antipathy to exaggeration , they are themselves efcaggerators of the most contemptible description—those who attach extrlyagant importance to trifles , and busy themselves to demonstrate circumstances that are hot worth a thought . There is somethmg ; noblfe at | easjt in the error of a man who exaggerates only what is in it&etf grj * at and exalted ; . but he thai would measure a hair , or wei £ h a featfier , ; is guilty of an hyperbole ( if so generous a tenfr is not too go ^ d fdr mm ^ ( G ^ t adpaits of no excuse . These scrupulists ^—these bdieri down , are iJjeinlsetves far more remote from truth generally than thbs ^ whosi itt ^ V $ ie so pleased to charge with incorrectness . A man over ^ owe * re ^ d iftfen tftirst says ; that he could drink the Thames dry—Hand I believe £ M ~ tnat , is , I very distinctly apprehend that he is excessively tfiiiity . A matter-of-fact man would receive such an assertion as an lnsilft , aM
would * take upon himself to prove , if he could keep from passion , thai it was , from the nature of things , an absolute falsehood . He would My down the maximum of a possible draught , and the way wou } 4 be clear before him . He has no allowance for the natural language of an eager apatite ; but summons up his soul , with all its experience , to justify the capacity of a quart pot . " - —pp . 73 , 74 . There is an ess £ y irt the present collection" On lwrae # tf / from which we caniiot venture to ^ uote ,, because we , fihdtt ||;|| e kme to extract more than our limits will . permit . It reipinijU us by . its force of truth , vivid illustration ^ ^ ud general !' k * % 4 line )? of BMitt ^ and * at the same time > of the aaie ^ tjiC * UiK lOTdtemeritoar humour of Lamb . Albeit > he adttjit * that w ^
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1837, page 327, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1832/page/9/
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