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    Untitled Article

    Next day I was informed how much my conduct , &c . &c . &c . ( for there was a long story of it ) had shocked * Mrs . Snodgrass . ' The influence extended to the friends at whose house this occurred : they were unusually reserved on my next visit , and soon after were 6 not at home' when I called . This affair set me thinking . i 5

    — How well do I hear , now , the gentle , smooth , liquid evenness of tone in which the lady syllabled those words ! I would defy the most sensitive ear to discover whether they carried any intention of reproach ,, hope , sympathy , feeling , meaning of any kind beyond the positive signification which would be given to them if they had been read from a dictionary : if they had been arranged in a perpendicular line , and conned over like a sum in addition ,

    they would have expressed her meaning quite as forcibly . I have frequently listened to the same kind of evenness since , more frequently from men than from women ; in which it is the more horrible I shall not say—nor will I ever use a gentler term than horrible in speaking of it . It is the process by which

    They show to circling eyes they ' re too genteel To laugh , or smile—to weep , or sigh , or feel : Convey , in placid tones , their bitterest spite ; To prove , while stabbing hearts , they are polite , And coat decocting venom o ' er with ice—For such is dignity . Not Pope .

    I have , a hundred times since , related this anecdote —( not the lady ' s conduct)—1 have used it as a touchstone , a key by which 1 unlocked the temper , and obtained access to the morale of the individual to whom I applied it . Many have spoken or ejaculated the words of the lady—others tearfully exclaimed , < poor creatures P Two I can remember , who remarked , ' what you must have suffered at seeing this painful disaster , yourself ,

    probably , in some measure , the cause , though the innocent cause !' Indeed , 1 did suffer . That shriek rang through the evening twilight for months afterwards , and I saw the piled blocks of ice toppling into the boat as I lay dreaming on my bed—I felt , over and over again , the almost burning eagerness with which I ran in search of another boat and assistants—( this portion of the story I relate now for the first time)—how , while others were reluctant in the supposed impossibility of rescuing the poor

    fellows , I was armed in triple strength , and utter insensibility to peril—obstacles diminished or vanished at the will ; effort seemed unnecessary ; I made none : energy and power came without a compulsory bracing of the nerves ; I remember my dumb indifference to remonstrances and the charge of c foolishness / as I leaped out of the boat , when an island of ice blocked up our progress , and made use of it as a fulcrum , my legs the lever , for propelling her ; sinking , as the fulcrum did , beneath my

    Untitled Article

    774 The Escape .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 774, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/42/