GEORGE ELIOT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1951, 8 January 1885, Page 4

GEORGE ELIOT.

Tin following review of " Esyays and leaves fi om .111 old notebook" appeals in tli'- Nelson M.ul :— 'I lie nunifious admirers of Geoige Kliot will tike p. culiar intciestin these essays, si-, I) nit; among hei eaihest productions. Th' v \uic all wutten before slio had be-i-oun" kiiov.n to thewoild under her iin moit 1 pseudonym. The cailiest of them ;■;>!>, v .d in lS.r>: the Litest m 18G8. Tney hi ,ir, however, no traces of the 'pruitieo hand. The pen which wrote tl.' •«•• pig-i is <i 3 graphic, humourous, 1 X \, ,i"id ineiM.o vi tint which in later yUIy Ul pioduecd the poitraits of Adam li .k- and Mr-. I\>)vm\ The gifted uulno c-.-. sdeiua indeed to have been as iklilv calovvo'l with tho ci itie.il .is with the in itivc iaculty. Of the seven issays in tins \olume five aie pie-eminently v.iii i! IV<> i f i!i«*m tiio specimens of situ win )i iin -.i^tibly lemind hs of "M,i< tni\ s in iulm dissection ot Mi I,' i'i'm t M mtgoin m y. It is repoited that (iibbon us' d to re.id the works of Pascal thiough eveiy jear to keep up his powers of situe 11 id ho been living still he nii^ht have ae«-nmplished the same purpo .c by leading (Jeoige Eliot's caustic t-sMV-i on the poet Young and Dr. Cuinining. Tho opening lines of the former ot th<s - < =jsa\ s is a fair sample of the st^lo- and spnit of them both. •' The study of men, as they have ap P'Tiied vi dilteit ages, and under various sou il c )iiditions, may be considered as the n.itm il Instoiy of tho race. Let us then unigine our&elvc* as students of this ii iliual history, 'dredging' the first halt oi the eighteenth century for specimen-,. About the year 1730 we have hauled up a remarkable individual of the spt-oii.3 'hiiiic — a surprising name, considuung the nature of the animal before Us ; but we are used to unsuitable names in natuial history. Let us examine this individual at leisure. He is on the \'ji o 'e of fifty, ami has recently undergon" his metamorphosis into the classical foim. Katlier a paradoxical specimen, if you obsuve him narrowly ; a soit of cros* between a sycophant and a psvlmist ; a poet whose imagination is alternately fired by the ' Lust Day' and by a cieation of peers, who fluctuates betneen lhapsodic applause of King (Jeorge, and rhapsodic applause of Jehovah. After spending 'a foolish yo ith, the sport of peers and poets,' after b> ing a hanger on of the profligate Duke of Wli.irton, after aiming in vain at a jMihamentaiy caieer, and angling for pension-, and preferment with fulsome dedic.itio is and festian odes, he is a little disgusted with his imperfect success, and has detei mined to retire from the general mi ndiLaney business to a particular btanch ; m other words, he has determined on that renunciation of the world implied in "taking orders" with the piospixt of. a good living and an advantag»oiis rmtiiinonial connection. Aud he pi i sonifies the nicest balance of tempoiahtits and spiiituttlities. He is e'iua!l\ impifsscd with the momentousm of deatii and of burial fees ; he Lmgui lies at once for immortal life and to> livings ' ; he has <i fond attachment to pitionj in gcneial, but, on the whole, pi>feis the Almighty. He will teach, with something more than official con- \ iction, tin- nothtngiicsa of earthly tilings ; and he will feel something more tint pmato disgust if his meritorious lint, in diiecting men's attention to .inotli< i wotldcirc not rewarded by sub stantial piefeiment in this. His secular in.iii In heves in cambric bands and silk ht >ekings a.s eh iracteristic attire for 'an oi n.i-nent of itd'gion and virtue '; hopes (ourtitis will never forget to copy Sir llobcit Walpolc; and writes begging li fctiTs to the King's mi&tress. His suiiitiial imu leeogni&cs no motives more t unili u than (Jolgotha and the skies ; it \viU< in giaveyards, or it soars among the stais." Whether tho estimate of Young's character presented in this essay is a jtisb one would require a more intimate u< fjnaintanee with the private life of the poet than that possessed by us to decide. Severe, however, as her strictmes are, they appear in this instance to be borne out by facts it is scarcely po.sible to e-ill in question. But we doubt v. h'-th t any impartial mind will piniionnce the same verdict on the ( i ay < utitl d " I]\ angelical Teaching : l)i. dimming." She accuses him not only of intellectual imbecility but un- <■ i.ipulosity of statement, of the absence nf q nniii" charity, and of prevented moral judgment. We fail to see that t!i -c c!n !•_"-. aio pioved by the evidime heie brought forward in support "i tin m Indeed there seems to us to if almost as amusing contrast between tlu cii^tie, scathing sentences in which she makes the indictment, and the pi->igis in inverted commas quoted to s'lpp'iil tlicm The whole essay, in tact, u ads more like a savage diatribe tl'ii i sober criticism, and the insinuation that Dr dimming is a fair spuimni of 'Evangelical Teaching' is tveu moie unjust than the caatigitiou administered to him. Robert Hall and Dr. Chalmers were not only ( v ing' lieal teachers, but far fairer types ot the teaching commonly known as i i ai'<_,'dieal than Dr, Camming. Had s'k tak< n either of their names for the till • of her e-isay, it would have bepn far I'iDXi suggestive of a desire to do justice to the subjects. As it is, her essay reads iiioh like a earicatuie intended to draw down the applause of an agnostic audic ni,' than an impartial investigation mtt ndt d to sift truth from error. Dr. Cii'i.niing's real offence in George Eliot's iy< s is, not his unscrupulosity, nor his urn liatitableness, but his evangelicalism. Tlf couit has determined that the piisonci shall be hanged, drawn, and ((iiaitdcd before he makes his appearaiu in the dock, and consequently if no cipital ollence can be constructed out of In, actions, it must be. discovered in the i s]>n sion of his face or the colour of his ban. We remember, however, that the Mim pen which wrote that essay afterwnnls wrote Janet's Kcpentance, and t! itilicd the poi trait of Dinah Morris, :md can tlmreforo foigive the evident animus ngainst evangelical religion by winch it was possessed on this particular ()(■( lililll. As vie i eid the remaining essays of the \olunie we haidly know which to admire must, the wonderful bicadth of culture of tin itithoicss, lier eaty eornmand of terse ldi ( ilde and elegant Knglish, her subtle j i in tuition, or her sound judgment and 't'on^' common &' n«e. The last is perii ,|p-, th' 1 most shiking merit in these ( -, ijs, because it is so rare to find such c. dm and sober sanity in conjunction with • in li a high endowment of the imaginativi faculty as hen. Take, e.g., the folI'iv in,' passage fi om tiie essay on 'The (iiiiniii author, Itield :' — "How little tin nal i h iractei istics of the working clasf-es aie known to those outside them, li'nv little their natural histoiy has been sMnli'd is sufficiently disclosed by our .i. t i, well as by our political and social tin o.us. . . The notion that peasants an inyoiu, that tho typical moment to ii jut m nt a man in a smock frock is when In iii tacking a joke and showing a row of 'ound teeth, that cottage matrons are usually buxom, and village childicn in ( < , „uily rosy and merry, are piejudu s difficult to dislodge from the artistic mind, which looks for its subjects into htu.ituio lust' ad of life. The painter is still under the influence of idyllic liki ifcure which lias always expressed the nup"iuation of the cultivated and townJi.i <l lather than tlio truth of rustic life. L'lyllie poughmen are jocund when they il' iv c th' ir teim afield ; idyllic shepherds tn :' ' bashful love under hawthorn bushes; jn,!!'c \ i lla^eis daneu in the chequeied :- i,i']. ,-md lefiesh themselves, not, imiii'.'i iaii ly, withspiey, nut brown ale. 'liih no (,:k who has st en much of actual 1 .'• 'iincn thinks thorn jocund ; no one w li ) nw<ll a' ]tia:nted with the English jici 'nti/ can piouounoe them merry. ') lv 'low gu/e, in which no sense of 1m nuy h ams, no humour twinkles, the In,', nttinnce, and the heavy slouching \ ill, remind me ratlier of that mclan!'(]y animal the camel, than of the fatuidy countiyman, with striped stock-

ings, red waistcoat, and hit aside, who U'prosents the traditional English pea s>nnt. That delicious effervescence of the mind which we call fun has no equivalent fiir the northern peasant, except tipsy lovelry; the only realm of fancy and imagination for the English clown exists .it the hotton of the third quart pot. The convciition.il countryman of the st.iye, who picks up pocketpooks and never looks at them, represents the still limberl.ig mistake than an unintelligible dialect is a guaiantee for ingenuousness, and fi.it slouching shoulders indicate an uplight disposition. It, is quite true that a thresher is likely to be innocent of any adioitanthmetical cheating, but he is not the less likely to cairy home his master-, corn in his &hoes and pockets. Flic Bullish instincts aie not subdued by the sit»ht of buttercups, nor is iutegnty established by that classic ruial occupa tion, sheep washm_\ To make men moral, fnonictlung more is requisite than to tin n them out to grass." In this shiewd sens', this homely, hninan realism which sees human life as it is, George Kliot has few equals and no superiors. This rare gift has already ■ diMidhcrto the first rank of Engli-.li no\el writers. And the exhibitions of it continued in the present volume are amply sufliuicnt to entitle her to a placo an the first rank of English essayists.