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Leader (1850-1860), 16th June 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Supplement to 273, Page 1, SUPPLEMENT _ ^p^ TO THE ^s nj]*) I

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    • ICiteratare.
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      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/