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    chief . Even the frankness ( which , it should seem , would have averted the evil , ) if exercised by her , might not have been appreciated by him . To his mind , the truth itself might have been

    as falsehood . Simplicity , like affection , can only be perfected by mutuality . So this first practical falsehood must be classed amongst the events which , in common parlance , ' cannot be helped ; ' a mode of expression by which we throw upon necessity and nature the blame of our own artificial morals and

    conventional manners . This mistake is the germ of the fatal error which Cleone makes . Believing that she had loved unrequitedly , and that her mental energy had subdued the passion , leaving her incapable of its recurrence , she is open to the influences which impel her to a marriage ; and that marriage is so motived that all the world would

    have cried out upon her folly , ingratitude , and want of feeling , had she declined it . The connexion is every way respectable , eligible , and promising ; far above any reasonable expectations she could entertain ; and the alternative is that of a hopeless life of unremunerated drudgery , with a blind brother in beggary , and

    a father dying in a gaol while she might have accomplished his liberation . Again , it may be asked , who shall condemn her ? And yet somebody or something must be condemnable , for here begins , not indeed the external calamity , but the inward anguish which makes this narrative so pathetic .

    Fitzcloin , her husband , is a gentleman ; wealthy , correct , and religious . He neither swears , drinks , nor seduces . But to him , her tastes and feelings are foolish fancies ; her glowing affections and reverences are creature-idolatries ; her generous emotions are wild extravagancies ; her intellect is a proud carnal reason ; her delicacies are affectations ; her independent frankness is flat

    rebellion ; her truthfulness is the refinement of artifice ; her philosophy is impiety ; and her beautiful moral discipline of her children is romance and silly theory . Now , as all this may happen to a woman making a good and undeniable match ; and that woman may be , in degree , a Cleone ; the wretchedness which ensues is perfectly within the bounds of verisimilitude ; and will be in proportion to the fineness and beauty of the sufferer ' s

    character . So far from having exaggerated , it seems to us that Mrs . Grim stone has , in two particulars , very much understated the case ; and those particulars are of some importance . We find it

    difficult to imagine that . Cleone could live so long with Fitzcloin as his wife , without detriment to her own character . Temper , sincerity , delicacy , must have suffered in such a collision . The gross and the pure , the sensitive and the hard , the progressive and the stationary , are not made for intimate contact , with

    Hnpumty to the finer nature . Benevolence may bring thfpi together , and that for good to both ; but their identification , on aqual terms , still more with the preponderance of the lower

    Untitled Article

    Cleone 3 dJ'

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 301, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/73/