Part 9 (1/2)

'During a visit I paid to Lord Lansdowne, at Bowood, in 1846, one of Miss Austen's novels became the subject of conversation and of praise, especially from Lord Lansdoho observed that one of the circumstances of his life which he looked back upon with vexation was that Miss Austen should once have been living so it

'I have heard Sydney Smith, more than once, dith eloquence on the merits of Miss Austen's novels He toldher praises in the ”Edinburgh Review” ”fanny Price” was one of his prime favourites'

I close this list of testi 'Catena Patrum,' with the remarkable words of Sir Walter Scott, taken froain, for the third time at least, Miss Austen's finely written novel of ”Pride and Prejudice” That young lady had a talent for describing the involves and characters of ordinary life, which is toBo strain I can do ; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary co from the truth of the description and the sentiifted creature died so early!' The orn condition of Scott's own copy of these works attests that they were much read in his family When I visited Abbotsford, a few years after Scott's death, I was permitted, as an unusual favour, to take one of these volumes in my hands One cannot suppress the wish that she had lived to knohat such ladly they would have cultivated a personal acquaintance with her I do not think that it would at all have impaired the modest simplicity of her character; or that we should have lost our own dear 'Aunt Jane' in the blaze of literary fa to contrast with these testireat, the opinions expressed by other readers of more ordinary intellect The author herself has left a list of criticish means of her friends This list containspraise, interspersed with so

One lady could say nothing better of 'Mansfield Park,' than that it was 'a ht 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice' downright nonsense; but expected to like 'Mansfield Park'

better, and having finished the first voluh the worst

Another did not like 'Mansfield Park' Nothing interesting in the characters Language poor

One gentleman read the first and last chapters of 'Emma,' but did not look at the rest because he had been told that it was not interesting

The opinions of another gentleman about 'Emma' were so bad that they could not be reported to the author

'Quot homines, tot sententiae'

Thirty-five years after her death there came also a voice of praise fro letter was received by her brother Sir Francis Austen:--

'Boston, Massachusetts, USA

6th Jan 1852

'Since high critical authority has pronounced the delineations of character in the works of Jane Austen second only to those of Shakspeare, transatlantic ad to her faenius is extensively recognised in the Ahest judicial authorities The late Mr

Chief Justice Marshall, of the supreme Court of the United States, and his associate Mr Justice Story, highly estimated and admired Miss Austen, and to them e our introduction to her society For htened our daily path, and her name and those of her characters are fa wished to express to soratitude and affection she has inspired, and request iven in the briefaccidentally heard that a brother of Jane Austen held a high rank in the British Navy, we have obtained his address from our friend Admiral Wormley, now resident in Boston, and we trust this expression of our feeling will be received by her relations with the kindness and urbanity characteristic of Admirals of _her creation_ Sir Francis Austen, or one of his fa with our request The autograph of his sister, or a few lines in her handwriting, would be placed aht in the companionshi+p of Jane Austen, and who present this petition, are of English origin Their ancestor held a high rank aland, and his name and character have been ably represented by his descendants in various public stations of trust and responsibility to the present time in the colony and state of Massachusetts A letter addressed to Miss Quincey, care of the Honble Josiah Quincey, Boston, Massachusetts, would reach its destination'

Sir Francis Austen returned a suitable reply to this application; and sent a long letter of his sister's, which, no doubt, still occupies the place of honour promised by the Quincey family

CHAPTER X

_Observations on the Novels_

It is not the object of these memoirs to attempt a criticism on Jane Austen's novels Those particulars only have been noticed which could be illustrated by the circumstances of her own life; but I now desire to offer a few observations on thee renders me a competent witness--the fidelity hich they represent the opinions and manners of the class of society in which the author lived early in this century They do this the more faithfully on account of the very deficiency hich they have been soed--namely, that they make no attempt to raise the standard of human life, but merely represent it as it was They certainly were not written to support any theory or inculcate any particular athered from an observation of the course of actual life--nareatness over littleness of raphs, in which no feature is softened; no ideal expression is introduced, all is the unadorned reflection of the natural object; and the value of such a faithful likeness es in the face of society itself A remarkable instance of this is to be found in her portraiture of the clergy She was the daughter and the sister of clergymen, who certainly were not low specimens of their order: and she has chosen three of her heroes from that profession; but no one in these days can think that either Edmund Bertram or Henry Tilney had adequate ideas of the duties of a parish minister Such, however, were the opinions and practice then prevalent ayelical, and afterwards by the High Church moveratulated which, on looking back to such a fixed land fro interval that elapsed between the coer Abbey' in 1798, and the commencement of 'Mansfield Park' in 1811, may sufficiently account for any difference of style which may be perceived between her three earlier and her three later productions If the forenius, they ht to have less of the faultless finish and high polish which distinguish the latter The characters of the John Dashwoods, Mr Collins, and the Thorpes stand out froinality which cannot be surpassed; but I think that in her last three works are to be found a greater refinement of taste, a ht into the delicate anato the difference between the brilliant girl and theone of those who have over-written themselves, it may be affirmed that her fame would have stood on a narrower and less firm basis, if she had not lived to resume her pen at Chawton

Some persons have surmised that she took her characters from individuals hom she had been acquainted They were so life-like that it was assumed that they must once have lived, and have been transferred bodily, as it were, into her pages But surely such a supposition betrays an ignorance of the high prerogative of genius to create out of its own resources iinary characters, who shall be true to nature and consistent in the true to nature and servilely copying any one specimen of it is not always clearly apprehended It is indeed true, both of the writer and of the painter, that he can use only such linea objects; otherwise he would produce s; but in both it is the office of high art to mould these features into new combinations, and to place them in the attitudes, and impart to them the expressions which may suit the purposes of the artist; so that they are nature, but not exactly the same nature which had come before his eyes; just as honey can be obtained only from the natural flohich the bee has sucked; yet it is not a reproduction of the odour or flavour of any particular flower, but becoh the process of transformation which that little insect is able to effect Hence, in the case of painters, arises the superiority of original co a higher faculty when he designed Co for Garrick, than when he merely took a likeness of that actor The sainal conceptions of Shakspeare and soth likenesses of individual persons, 'The Talking Gentleman' for instance, as are admirably drawn by Miss Mitford

Jane Austen's powers, whatever ree in which she possessed theher order She did not copy individuals, but she invested her own creations with individuality of character A reviewer in the 'Quarterly' speaks of an acquaintance who, ever since the publication of 'Pride and Prejudice,' had been called by his friends Mr

Bennet, but the author did not know hinised any individual in her characters; and I can call to mind several of her acquaintance whose peculiarities were very te and easy to be caricatured of whoes She herself, when questioned on the subject by a friend, expressed a dread of what she called such an 'invasion of social proprieties' She said that she thought it quite fair to note peculiarities and weaknesses, but that it was her desire to create, not to reproduce; 'besides,' she added, 'I aentlemen to admit that they were only Mr A or Colonel B' She did not, however, suppose that her iher order than are to be found in nature; for she said, when speaking of two of her great favourites, Edhtley: 'They are very far froentlemen often are'