On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
SUPPLEMENT _ ^p^ TO THE ^s nj]*) I
-
"~ VOIi. VI. No. 273.] ~ SATURDAY, JUNE ...
-
ICiteratare.
-
Critics are not the legislators, but the...
-
! MEMOIRS OP SYDNEY SMITH _ . A Memoir o...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Supplement _ ^P^ To The ^S Nj]*) I
SUPPLEMENT _ _^ _p _^ TO THE _^ _s nj _]*) I
"~ Voii. Vi. No. 273.] ~ Saturday, June ...
" _~ VOIi . VI . No . 273 . ] ~ SATURDAY , JUNE 16 , 1855 . [ Gratis .
Iciteratare.
ICiteratare _.
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
! Memoirs Op Sydney Smith _ . A Memoir O...
! MEMOIRS OP SYDNEY SMITH _ . A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith . By his Daughter , Lady Holland . With a Selection from his Letters . Edited by Mrs . Austin . Longman and Co England has many men of wit to boast of , but none of whom she can be more thoroughly proud than of Sydney Smith . His wit was of a quite peculiar flavour , and , except by Charles Lamb , quite unrivalled . It is the essence of sportive kindliness . It has the lightness and grace of the finest French wit , with the genial heartiness and sterling Saxon wisdom of English hu- mour . It has no acerbity , no indecency , nothing to call up a blush ! or a re- ,. _e _ ,. _T-ii - _^ i ., ¦ " . _t- _^ ui j- t * i vnsion of feeling following the outburst of the ludicrous . It is always eitlier the smile of _rad-ant wisdom , or the caprice ot sportive fancy : the lightning of the mind , but summer lightning , which brightens up the sky and scathes no one . This is the conception we form of Sydney Smith ' s wit , as we read his i i u- _~_*~ _j i * ti , » ., _j ,, _mQ _nf _Momn , 1 _™ on / _l writings or laugh over his reported bonsmots The volume of Memoirs and the volume of letters just published add nothing new to the conception of the man , except to confirm all that we thought ot good . A more lovely picture has seldom been presented to the world than that ot this brave and bright creature , so rich in wit , humour , high animal spirits , inexhaustible kindliness , manly independence , sagacious good sense . To read this book is a moral tonic . It is a lesson in life . It makes us happier and I better . And while it does this it presents more entertainment than any I book easily named , so rich is it in wisdom , in association , in personal | gossip about well-known people . A more thoroughly virtuous life we I cannot remember . Yet he was the pet of London , the great wit , the diner I out , and a clergyman—positions in which one does not look for the highest I morality—but which his fine strong nature enabled him to assume with the I most signal success and impunity . There was French blood in his veins ; | and to this blood he owed , perhaps , his high spirits ; but even the extrava- I gance of high spirits never carried him into prodigality , unscrupulosity , or 1 insolence . lie paid his bills , and he spared the feelings of his friends . Lord I Dudley once said to him , " You have been constantly laughing at me for the I inst seven years and never said anything I could wish unsaid . " What a g tribute ! ' * " I The Memoir which his daughter has drawn up is one of attaching interest , I nlthoiieh in biographical detail it is insignificant enough . There were few i . _"" ' " _h" *» _" a _p "" - _i « " _, \ . c . 7 . "• k :, _~ , » , o _«» _+ lir . 1 incidents in Sydney Smith ' s life to make an interesting biography : the I interest is entirely moral ; it lies in the picture ot a beautiful Happy soul . I Our extracts we shall endeavour to make as ' various as possible . We begin 1 with a glance at his clerical position . He was purely pious , too pious to be I : i fanatic , too humane to make Religion a weapon of offence . As he says , | '' piety , stretched beyond a certain point , is the parent of impiety . " We § think it is impiety itself . But for g ood practical sense , flavoured with wit , I o : i the subject of preaching , what can be better than this : — I " There is a bad taste in the language of sermons evinced by a constant ropetition of i ttie same scriptural phrases , which perhaps were used with groat judgment two him- I _drod years ago but arc now become so trite that they may , without any great detri- I ment , bo exchanged for others . ' Putting off the old man—and putting on the new man , " The one thing needful ' The Lord hath set up his candlestick , ' 'The armour of righteousness , ' etc . etc . etc . etc . The sacred Scriptures arc _nuroly abundant enough to afford _ua the same idea with somo novelty of language : wo can never bo driven , from the penury of those writings , to wear and fritter their holy language into a perfect cant , which passes through the car without leaving any impression . " To this cause of the unpopularity of sermons may be added the extremely un- graceful manner in which thoy arc delivered . The English , generally remarkable for I doing very good things in a very bad manner , scorn to have reserved the maturity and I plenitude of their awkwardness for the pulpit . A clergyman clings to his velvet I cushion with either hand , keeps hit ) eyo riveted upon his book , speaks of the ecstasies I of joy and fear with a voice and a faco which indicate neither , and pinions his body 1 uad soul intotho same attitude of limb and thought , for fear of being called theatrical '' lid affected . The most intrepid veteran of uh all dares no more than wipe Ins iaco with his cambric _audarimn ; if , by mischance , his hand alip from its orthodox gripe of ¦ the velvet , ho draws it back aa from liquid brimstone , or the caustic iron _ol the law , and atones for this indecorum by frosh inflexibility and more rigorous _samenosa . Is it _S _^^ iln _^ _uTZr _^ e 01 _^ oi _^ _tS _^ S _^ _^ _^ Z _^^^ S _^ _Established Churl , and in fwo _^ _Sun- < laya nreach him . _hnr _* tn tho , vnrv soxton ? Whv are wo natural everywhere but in _tliySff No man oxpreaSea _^^^ rm and auVma _^ od feelings anywhere clae with his
mouth alone , but with bis whole body ; he articulates with every limb , and talks from head to foot with a thousand voices . "Why this _holoplexia on sacred occasions alone ? Why call in the aid of paralysis to piety ? Is it a rule of oratory to balance . the style against the subject , and to handle the most sublime truths in the dullest language and the driest manner ? Is sin to be taken from men , as Eve was from Adam , by casting them into a deep slumber ? Or from what possible perversion of cornmon sense are we all to look like field-preachers in Zembla , holy lumps of ice numbed tnt f quiescence , and _stagnation , and mumbling ? „ £ Y » theatrical to use action , and it is Methodistical to use action _, _**\ Zl h _*™ , e ™ hed contem P fc f ° r sectaries , and persevered in dignified tameness so long , that while we are freeztng common sense for large salaries _zn stately churches , amidst whole acres and furlongs of empty pews , the crowd are feasting on ungrammatical fervour and illiterate animation in the crumbling hovels of Methodists . " Here . g Qne of fche many tQuches wh _- ch recal dear Cnarles Lambj He acted as _magistrate 5 " ,.,, _.,. _-. _^ _. _j -u i ,. i . oung delinquents he never could bear to commit ; but read them a severe lecture , and in e 5 xtreme i cases called u Joh brm me m ivate llows r which infal _'_ libIy brought the little urching weepingo ' n thefr kaees , and , « Oh ! for God's sake , your honour , pray forgive us ! " and his honour used graciously to pardon them for this time , and delay the arrival of the private gallows , and seldom had occasion to repeat the threat . This is felicitously said : An argumeat arose , ia which my father observed how many of the most eminent men of the world had been diminutive in person , and after naming several among the ancients , he added , "Why , look there at Jeffrey ; and there ia my little friend , who has not body enough to cover his mind decently with ; his intellect is improperly exposed . " The following loses something from being told , but lamb served up cold is still a delicate dish when the salad of wit flavours it : — Afc Mr Rom n . iy ' s there aro 3 e a discussion on the Inferno of Dante , and the tortures ne had invented . " He may be a great poet , " said my father , " but as to invention , I consider him a mere bungler , —no imagination , no knowledge of the human heart . If I had taken it in hand , I would show you what torture really was ; for instance ( turning , merrily , to his old friend Mrs . Marcet ) , you should < le doomed to listen , for a thousand years , to conversations between Caroline and Emily , where Caroline should always give wrong explanations _^ chemistry , and Emily , in the end , be unable to distinguish an acid from an alkali " You , Macaulay , —let me consider , —oh , you shou d bo dumb . False dates and facts of the reign of Queen Anne should for ever be shouted in your ears ; all liberal and honest opinions should be ridiculed in your presence . a / d you should not be able to say a single word during that period in their defouce And Ayhat would you condemn mo to , Mr . Sidney ? " said a young mother . _« why , you should for ever see those three sweet little girls of yours on the point of fulling downstairs , and never be able to save thorn . There , what tortures arc there in Dante equal to these ?" " Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers . " Here we have Charles Lamb again : — « Nothing amuses me more than to observe the utterwant of perception of a joke in somo minds . Mrs . Jackson called the other day , and spoke of the oppressive hunt of last week . ' Heat , Ma'am ! ' I said ; ' it was so dreadful here , that I found there was nothing left for it but to take offmy flesh and sit in my hones . ' ' Take offyour nosh ami sit in your bones , Sir ! Oh , Mr . Smith ! how could you do that i she exclaimed , with the utmost gravity . ' Nothing more easy , Ma ' am ; co . nc and see next time . Hut hIio ordered her carriage , and evidently thought it a very unorthodox proceeding . " Miss — too the other day walking round the grounds at Combo _" ° | _- « y . exclaimed , 'Oh , why do you chain up that uno N _ewfoiindliinc 1 _clo g M r « nuJi i _» Because it has a passion for breakfasting on parish boys . 1 ar _^ m ° _^ ! all ° _^ 1 claimed , ' does ho roally eat boys , Mr . Smith ? ' ' \ os _, lie devours them , buttons and all . Her faco of horror made mo die of laughing . This lesson wants repented enforcement : — Speaking of education : " Never teach false morality . How exquisitely absurd to to ] 1 girljJ Umt l ) Cftuty _j _fl () f no vn u 0 | dmss of no use ! Beauty is of vnluo ; her whole pi . Ofll ) 0 cts ftnd happiness in life may often depend upon a now gown or a becoming bonuot ftnd if flho , mH fivo rraina of common _soiiho _hIig will find this out . The great thing i ( j tQ toa < jh h ( , r thoir jf _, st vaiH 0 ? a , ld ( l , at there must be something better under thfl bonnot th ( m ft pretty ftu ) 0 for real _liappiness . But never sacriflco truth . delicious _exaffacration of tliis must have been overpowering to _J-iiejjencious exaggciauou S _^ o _»« _Cloned that a young Scotchman , who had been lately in the _neighbourhopd , was about , to marry » V . _^^ m _£ " _^ dimensions . "Going to marry her ! ho exclaimed , bursting out jaugiung , _fcoinf , o marry hor ! import !* ! you moan , a part of her : ho could not marry her all
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/scld_16061855/page/1/
-