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    a strong feeling—for t ^ ey are not of sufficient consequence to themselves to knbW of what intense consequence they may be to others—and they are particularly liable to suffering , because , as they make no outward or violent efforts to grasp at what they desire , they are often supposed to feel no strong desire , and treated accordingly .

    We have dwelt upon this description , not only because it is fine in itself , but because it includes the character of the lady who causes the tragedy of the book . Alithea Rivers , whom Falkner loved , who was formed to make his happiness , but who , in the workings of ruthless destiny , became his bane , and was lost in the whirlwind of his impetuous passions , is an

    example of such a nature . Neither she nor Falkner will be understood , except by those who study human nature in its varieties . To all others their story will appear exaggerated , and immoral ; and the more so as not a few stumbling-blocks have been thrown in the way by the authoress herself , who interweaves with her finest passages the most trite

    conventionalisms , in the shape of moral reflections . She thus affords an instance of that which is not uncommon—the power of the world to tarnish , but never to destroy the true impulses of a poetic temperament . Aristocratic sympathies and shallow views peep out here and there , but the tendency of the whole

    is lofty , and worthy of her noble descent and early associations . The adopted daughter of Falkner , when urged by the strongest appeals , and by one motive after another , to embrace a worldly course which would ensure to her common-place prosperity , the approbation of friends , and a marriage with the man she loves , in contradistinction to a noble one full of danger and obloquy , -rfirinly chpoges the latter , saying to her lover , who is urging her the other way : — u Methinks we speak two languages—I speak of duties the most sacred ; to fail in which would entail self-condemnation on me to the end of my days . You speak of the conveniences , the paint , the outside of life , which is as nothing in comparison . "—Vol . iii . p . 113 . ^ ia is the tendency of the whole book . The inward and the real , wt the outward and accidental , are considered and raised into importance in its morality . The narrative of ' Falkner' is composed of a , succession of graphic sketches of different characters , circumstances , and states of feeling . His early recollections of his mother , her gentleness , her love for him , and her death , form the first of these . It is followed by the picture of his father , the younger son of a good fatnily , who had gambled away his own fortune and his wife ' s por tion , and lived on the hopes of his elder brother ' s death ; a '' spqatand even polite man in society / ' but "rough and ill-tempered at home ; treating his son with brutal vio-

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    230 Falkner .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1837, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1830/page/40/