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Leader (1850-1860), 12th December 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, ? _ . . ' . Messrs. Smith and Elder have...

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    • *5rvii. X * ll^rillltr? r-tHHtwvw ?——
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      No. 403, Obecemsker 12,1857/1 Tie Leaber...

      No . 403 , OBecemsker 12 , 1857 / 1 TIE LEABER . tt » -i -

      *5rvii. X * Ll^Rillltr? R-Thhtwvw ?——

      Eferate ^

      ¦ ¦ Critics A*E Not The Legislators, But...

      ¦ ¦ Critics a * e not the legislators , but the judges and police ofjiterature . They do not jxialce-laws—theydnterpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      ? _ . . ' . Messrs. Smith And Elder Have...

      ? _ . . ' . Messrs . Smith and Elder have just issued a new edition of Mr . Thackebat ' s Esmond in a single volume / uniform with the volumes of his collected Miscellanies . This is a seasonable publication to those of Mr . Thackeiucs : 's admirers -who may not already have on their shelves his first , and , as yet , only complete historic novel . They will be glad to possess and re-read it again for its own sake , and as a necessary introduction to the Virginians . While all Mr .

      Thackeray ' s works deserve not only to be read hut to he studied , Esmond lias special claims to careful reperusal . Its publication constituted a new era in his career as a writer of fiction . The ' Story of Queen Anne ' s Reign' was new both in the subject and the way of treatment . Hitherto his stories had been confined to the severely faithful portraiture of existing society , but in , Esmond he appeared as an historic novelist . The task the great humorist now proposed to himself was evidently a wider and nohler one than any yet accomplished . He intended to sketch not only contemporary manners , but he previous state of society out of which they had arisen , to become , in the largest sense , the painter of modern English life . With this abject in view , he naturally began at the -commencement of the eighteenth century , the

      revolution of 1688 being the gulf which separates the old forms of English life and society from the new . This was a period , too , peculiarly favourable for the exercise of his art . To the novelists of action and passion , who naturally seek the materials of their stories in the stormy periods of war and bloodshed , of revolution and violent social changes , the reign of Queen Anne is at best but a barren era . But Thackeray is quite at Lome in the brilliant routine Cf that artificial and highly polished society . He is characteristically the painter , not of humanity simply , or of the passions in their most natural manifestation , but of man as seen in society , and of the passions as developed under special social forms . This is , in fact , the main difference between the two great novelists of the day . With all his accumulation of

      characteristic detail , Dickens is the poet , not of society , but of humanity ., finding in . the lowest walks of common life—amongst the outcasts of society beneath the rog-s and filth—something- to reverence and love . Thackehay is the poet of society , looking for the true feeling and manly action that exist amidst its frivolities and hypocrisies , and picturing with truthful charity what he finds . The more artificial and elaborate any state of society is , the more rich and tempting the materials it affords to one able to use them aright . And Tiiackebay is at home amongst the wits of Queen Anne ' s reign , not simply because he sympathizes with their way of life , but also because lie shares their peculiar powers , combining in a rare degree with the satiric force of Swift , Steel ' s kindly humour and

      Abdison ' s fine reflectiveness . The latter qualities in particular are more largely developed ; iix Esmond than in the author's earlier works . Both the subject chosen , and the way of treatment adopted , favoured this change . In the autobiography of a noble-minded but saddened man , a good deal of quaint and serious reflection was natural enough , while the tone adopted throughout was far more tender and sad than bitter and satirical . This naturally disappointed many of Thackeray ' s early admirers , who missed in Esmond the force and sarcastic bitterness that had specially delighted them in Vanity Fair . But , notwithstanding this , the circle of Thackeray ' s readers was much increased by the publication of Esmond , many of his old enemies in the sentimental classes having been won over by its scenes of tenderness and sorrow .

      But apart from its special merits , Esmond must be read just now as an introduction to the Virginians . It is quite impossible fully to understand and enjoy the latter story without a good knowledge of the former . The two numbers of the Virginians already published abound with references which can only be properly appreciated by those who have the previous history of the Esmond family fresh in their recollection . The new talc is in the strictest sense . the sequel of the old , not only introducing the same characters , but continuing their history at a later period ; the intermediate events being briefly indicated as connecting links . Curiously cnough , too , a promise or prophecy of the Virginians is given in Esmond . The germ of the story is evidently the following pa-ssasc , which occurs in the touching dialogue between Beatrix and Esmond , in which he finally resumes his hopeless suit : —

      " You hare had my heart ever since then , such as it was ; and such as you were , I enred for no other woman . What little reputation I have won , it was that you might be pleased with it : and , indeed , it is not much ; and I think a hundred fools in tho army have got and deserved quite as inuel * . Was there something in the air of that dismal old Castlewood that made m all gloomy , and dissatisfied , and lonely under its ruined old roof ? Wo were all so , even wlien together and united , aa it seemed , following our separate schemes , each as wo sate round the tal > le . " " . Dear , dreary old place ! " cries Beatrix . " Mamma hath never had tho heart to go back thither since wo loft it , when—never mind how many years ago , " and ahe flung hack her cuvls , and looked over her fair shoulder at the mirror superbly , ua if aho said , " Time , I defy you . "

      " Yes , , said Esmond , who had the art , as ahe . owneii , of divining many of her thoughts . " You can afford to look in tlie glass still ; nnd only be pleused hy the truth it tells you . As for me , do you know yhat my scheme is ? I think of asking Frank to give me tho Virginia estate King Charles gnve our grandfather . ( She ^ avo a awperb curtsy , aa much aa to Buy , ' Our grandfather , indeed ! Thnnk you , Mr . Bastard . ') Yes , I know you are thinking of my bar-sinister , and so am I . A rnan cannot get over it in this country ; unless , indeed , ho wwirs it across a king ' s arms , when 'Us a highly honourable coat ; aud I am thinking of retiring . into the

      plantations , and building myself a wigwam in tie woods , aadL perhaps , if I waat-company suiting myself with a squaw . We will send your ladyship furs © vat far-the winter ; and , when you are old , well provide you with tobacco . I am not quite clever enough , or not rogue enough—I know not which—for the old world . I ma-y make a place for myself in the new , which is not so full ; and found a family there When you are a mother yourself , and a great lady , perhaps I shall send you over from the plantation some day a little barbarian that is half Esmond half Mohock and you Trill be kind to him for his father ' s sake , who was , after all , your kinsman and whom you loved a little . "

      " What folly you are talking , Harry , " says ' Hiss Beatrix , looking with her great eyes . . ¦ - . . , . . . . ¦ . ¦ - ¦ " Tis sober earnest , " says Esmond . And , indeed , the scheme had been dwelling a good deal in his mind for some time past , and especially since "his return home , when he found how hopeless , and even , degrading to himself , his passion was . "No , * -says he , then , " I have tried'half a dozen , times no-w . I can bear being away from you well enough ; but being with you is intolerable ( another low curtsy on Miss Beatrix ' s part ) , and I will go * I have enough to buy axes and guns for my men , and beads and blankets for the savages ; and Til go and live amongst them . " The ' little " barbarian , half Esmond half Mohock / from the plantations , arrives , and is introduced to Beatrix in . the first number of thenew tale .

      Mr. Chaules Middeeton Lias In Preparatio...

      Mr . Chaules Middeeton lias in preparation , a new life of Shelijey , the result of much study and investigation , and of great sympathy with the poet's exalted genius . We understand that it will incLu . de a republication of the Queen Mab , with a large number of MS . emendations in Shelley ' s own handwriting , found at his residence at Marlow , Buckinghamshire . These alterations are for the most part decided improvements on the original , which , appears "to have been relieved of its youthful redundancies and comnion-plaoes . They are undoubtedly genuine , and will be regarded with , considerable interest .

      Montaigne The Essayist. Montaigne The Es...

      MONTAIGNE THE ESSAYIST . Montaigne the Essayist . A Biography . By Bayle St . John . With Illustrations . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . Mr . Ba . yle St . John , before writing this "book , had thoroughly qualified himself to become the biographer of Montaigne . The ground was unoccupied ; no Life of the Essayist had yet appeared . Fifteen years ago he formed the plan , and every interval of opportunity during that long period has been devoted to its elaboration . In 1844 , indeed , a first chapter was ; published ; but Mr . St . John then felt that large and penetrating researches would be necessary before he could hope to . complete the biography of Montaigne , one of the princes of French literature ^ ; the peer , yet , in some respects , the contrast of . Rabelais , who imprinted , his influence on Shakspeare and Bacon , on S-vviffc and Sterne , on Pope and Butler , whose writings have been

      singularly neglected by Englishmen of the modern generations , and whose character has often been strangely misrepresented in France . Sixfcy years after the discovery of printing , forty after the discovery of America , fifteen after Iiutjher opened his crusade , Montaigne was born . His peculiar education , his friendship for Estienne de la Boetie , his studies at his ancestral chateau , his Essays , his veiled scepticism , and some other broad facts connected with his career , are vaguely known , as Mr . St . John remarks ; but hitherto his story has never been adequately told . We have to examine , therefore , the literary title-deeds upon which Mr . St . John founds his claims to rank as the first and only biographer of the great Michel de Montaigne . The Essays , he says , are , and must remain , the chief authority . But he has felt it necessary to be extremely cautious in . their use , the statements they contain being occasionally invalidated by actual evidence from

      other sources . These desultory materials it-was difficult to collect . No French or English writer had attempted what Mr . St . John has accomplished . Dr . Payen , indeed , had ^ disinterred a mass of testimonies to the events of the Essayist ' s life , and had been followed by Gustave Brunet , Tiel-Castel , Jubinal , Griii ) , and others ; Leon Feugere , Guizot , Yillemain , Sainte-Beuve , Philarete Chasles , Michelet , and Henri Martin have also been laboriously consulted . But it seems perfectly true that special authors have in many instances created an ideal Montaigne instead of describing the actual one ;—that the Essayist has been converted by successive critics into a Pascal , a Malebranche , a gentlemanly sceptic , in imitation of Bayle , a scoffer , a Capuchin friar , a Mr . Emerson , a property appertaining to Dr . Payen , and a man after M . Griin ' s own heart—that is to say , a l * refet of the Gironde . But when we note , in Mr . St . John ' s explanatory chapters , the great range of inquiry and the multiplicity of documents , we are not surprised that upwards of two hundred and fifty years should have elapsed before a life of

      Montaigne was competently written . We think it is one of the principal merits of Mr . St . John ' s volumes that they arc pervaded by a spirit of fine discrimination , that the tone is nowhere exaggerated , that all the aspects of the Essayist ' s genius and disposition are characterized with subtle exactitude , and that the author ' s unconcealed sympathy with his subject never overpowers his endeavour to be accurate nnd impartial . Thus we have not a eulogy , but that which , is infinitely more valuable , an estimate . While Mr . St . John ' s ardour led him to undertake a pilgrimage to tho ancient Chateau de Montaigne , where he was hospitably treated b y Monsieur and Madame de Gurial , an instinct of justice follows him even into the library interior—sketched from the admirable painting by Henry Wallia—to the foot of Montaigne ' s tower , into his garden , and into the castellct of La Bootie , with all of which he has made Inmself familiar , and which are illustrated in the several woodcuts accompanying the narrative . The portrait of the Essayist is admirable—the portrait of a Gus <; on of Gascons .

      The biography must be read in its entirety . From any mere outline the points that confer originulity upon the book would infallibly be missed . Mr . St . John , tracing a continuous series of incidents and developments , contrives to present , in each chapter , a cluster of harmonious details ; in homage to the patrician ancestry of the Essayist he glances , of course , at his family derivation , and , finding it honourable , passes on through the adventures of Pierre Eyqucni , to tho birth , ourly education , youthful studies , und college life of Michel , to his first days at Court , and the ternbie . rebellion of 1513—an episode singularly illustrative of the social state of 1 ranee in the middle of the sixteenth century . In boyhood , Montaigne . professes to

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 12, 1857, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12121857/page/15/