COMPANIONS OF MY SOLITUDE. * THIS 'volume is by the author
of Friends in Council, and proba- bly of some other works of the nature of essays or disquisitions on practical and historical subjects, that have been published by Mr. Pickering. The books we speak of have all certain fea- tures in common. They are distinguished by accomplished scholar- ship—extensive and various reading, somewhat out of the beaten track—a genial feeling for human advancement—philanthropy and liberality, without the cant and conventions. The thoughts are frequently new and valuable, but on the whole the books are more indebted to their manner than their matter for an original appear- ance ; it is less the thought than the mode of conveying it which gives an air of novelty. This mode is not exactly imitative, but it is based upon the study of our Elizabethan prose writers ; the old style being stripped of its pedantry and warmed by a geniality and Wordsworthian appreciation of nature, not always felt or at least expressed by those elder worthies. The contemporary to whose style the books we are speaking of bear the nearest resem- blance is the author of The Statesman. This resemblance is per- haps closer in the present volume than in any of its predecessors, so much so as almost to look like an alter idem.
Companioni of mg Solitude is a series of essays, varied by an occasional dialogue, and by an everyday, natural story, of con- siderable attraction, and containing the very romance of every- day life. There is occasionally some of the approach to tedious- ness that we noticed in the last volume of Friends in Council ; arising from the same cause, a disposition to make writing do the work of matter, sometimes in the body of the essay itself, more frequently in a species of proem which introduces many of the papers. As a whole, however, there is more life and interest in this volume ; owing, we think, to the greater interest of the sub- jects, which have a bearing upon universal or contemporary ques- tions. There are remarks upon the evils of English law, and upon the difficulies and shortcomings of English statesmanship and government, with a slight notice of Peel, distinguished by a nice appreciation of one trait of his character. " It always appeared to me, that he had the most peculiar appreciation of the irrationality and difficulty to manage of mankind. This was one of the things which made him so cautious. He never threw out his views or opi- nions till the moment when they were to be expressed in action. He did not want to provoke needless opposition. In short, it was clear that he had the keenest apprehension of the folly of the world : he was very obstinate withal, or, as I had better say, resolved ; and very sensitive. He did nothing under the hope that it would pass easily and cost him nothing to do ; and yet at the same time, though he foresaw distinctly opposition and unreason and calumny, he felt them more perhaps than quite beseemed so wise and resolute a man when they did come.',
A large portion of the volume is devoted to that crying evil and shame of civilized society the prostitution of great cities ; a shame
• Companions of my Solitude. Published by Pickering.
and an evil of so vast a magnitude, involving in itself so much of misery and degradation for women, so much of heartlessness, coarsemindedness, and cruelty in men, and permeating society at large with such a mass of hypocrisy, that but for faith in freedom and progress it might be doubted whether Oriental polygamy or savagisin itself were not a preferable state to that where a large portion of society seems offered up as victims to the rest. This topic is handled by the author with kindliness and sense, and il- lustrated by Elverton's story, to which we have already alluded. There are in the essays upon it a good many apt and some useful suggestions ; but the author hardly goes to the root of the matter— partly, perhaps, because the subject scarcely admits of it in a book that aims at being popular and elegant ; partly, we think, because the writer, with all his keenness, his scholarship, his reflective powers, and his knowledge of life, has hardly acumen to pierce to the marrow of complicated questions, or comprehensivenem ts.; seize a whole, although his training and his style make an appear- ance of approaching this highest reach of philosophy.
The remarks on prostitution evolve a variety of other topics, especially in treating of remedies. They are sometimes rather wide of the mark considered as practical remedies, but shrewd in reference to actual affairs.
" There are various things which the State could do in these matters ; but it would require a very wise and great government; and how is such a thing to be got ? In the act of rising to power men fail to obtain the knowledge and thought, and especially, the purpose, to use power. There is some Eastern proverb, I think, about the meanest reptiles being found at the top of the highest towers. That, as applied to government, is ill-natured and utterly untrue. But people who are swarming up a difficult ascent, or maintaining themselves with difficulty on a narrow ledge at a great height, are not em- ployed exactly in the way to become great philosophers and reformers of mankind. Constitutional governments may be great blessings, but nobody can doubt that they have their price. There are, however, excellent men in high places amongst us at the present moment ; but timidity in attempting good is their portion, especially by any way that has not become thoroughly in- vincible in argument. I suppose the man who was to try some very generous thing as a statesman, and were to fail, would be irretrievably lost as a states- man.
" Meanwhile, Socialism is put forward to fill the void of Government ; and if Government does not make exertion, we may yet have dire things to en- counter. By government in the foregoing sentence I mean not only what we are in the habit of calling such, but all the governing and directing persons in a nation. Some of them are certainly making great efforts even now, and there lies our hope."
The author gives a short case illustrative of the causes that lead to the prostitution of the poor, and then proceeds to hit off the Church.
" Now of course there are thousands of eases of this kind in which one feels that the poor child has slipped out of the notice and care of people who would have been but too glad to aid her. I dare say neither mother nor child ever went to any church or chapel. And, in truth, let us be honest and confess that going to church in England is somewhat of an operation, especially to a poor, ill-clad person. This system of pews and places, the want of openness of churches, the length of the service resulting from the admixture of services, the air of over-cleanliness and respectability which beset the place, and the difficulty of getting out when you like, are sad hin- derances to the poor, the ill-dressed, the sick, the timid, the fastidious, the wicked, and the cultivated. " And then there is nobody into whose ear the poor girl can pour her troubles, except she comes as a beggar. This will be said to be a leaning on my part to the confessional. I cannot help that ; I must speak the truth that is in me. And I wish that many amongst us Protestants, who would, I doubt not, welcome the duty, could, without pledging ourselves to all man- ner of doctrines, but merely by a genial use of those common relations of life which bring us in daily contact with the poor, fulfil much of what is genuinely good in the functions of a confessor, and thus become brothers of mercy and brothers of charity to the poor. "Meanwhile, it is past melancholy, and verges on despair, to reflect what is going on amongst ministers of religion, who are often but too intent upon the fopperies of religion to have heart and time for the substantial work in- trusted to them—immersed in heart-breaking trash from which no sect is free ; for here are fopperies of discipline, there fopperies of doctrine (still more dangerous as it seems to me). And yet there are these words resound- ing in their ears, Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.' And the word world,' as Coleridge has well explained, is this order of things, the order of things you are in. Clerical niceness and over-sanctity, for in- stance, and making more and longer sermons than there is any occasion for, and insisting upon needless points of doctrine, and making Christianity a stumblingblock to many—that, excellent clergymen, (for there are numbers who deserve the name,) that is your world, there lies your temptation to err."
One of the papers is on the art of rising. It is set in a sort of story that facilitates the introduction of subordinate matters, as is this writer's wont, and contains a good many remarks which, like the advice in Mr. Taylor's Statesman, hang between pure worldli- ness and worldly philosophy. This is one. "Get, if you can, into one or other of the main grooves of human affairs. It is all the difference of going by railway, and walking over a ploughed field, whether you adopt common courses, or set up one for yourself. You will see, if your times are anything like ours, most inferior persona highly placed in the army, in the church, in office, at the bar. They have somehow got upon the line, and have moved on well with very little original motive power of their own. Do not let this make you talk as if merit were utterly neglected in these or any professions : only that getting well into the groove will frequently do instead of any great excellence." There is no getting well into these grooves, we fancy, without great luck or "good connexions": but this perhaps the author may intend to intimate in another place, where he talks of friends, all the while meaning "connexion." As valuable a paper as any of the miscellaneous essays is that on law. Specific modes of remedy are not there, but the author broadly and boldly indicates the direction in which they may be found ; and points out the evils with a calm but unsparing finger. " Law, for example, what a loss is there—of time, of heart, of love, of leisure! There are good men whose minds are set upon improving the law ; but I doubt whether any of them are prepared to go far enough. ere again we must hope most from general improvement of the people. Perhaps, though, acme one great genius will do something for-us. I have often fancied that a man might play the part of Brutus in .the law. Ile might-simulate mad- ness in order to insure freedom. He might make himself a great lawyer, "rise-to eminence in the profession, and then turn round and say, I am not mooing to enjoy this high seat and dignity;' but intend'henceforward to be an -advocate for the people of this country against the -myriad oppressions and vexations of the Jaw. No Chanceliorehips .or Ohief•Justiceships for me. I have only pretended to-be:this slave in order that you should not say that I ram an untried and unpractical man—that I do not understand your
-mysteries.' " * * * '*
"I do not knowameaner and ladder portion of -a -man's existence, or one -13VME likely to -be full of •impatient sorrow, than that which he spends in
waiting at the offices 'of lawyers. *
"No man eanicorigine, not.Swirt himself, things more shameful, absurd, and grotesque, than the things-which do take place daily in the law. Satire 'becomes merelymarrative. A modern novelist depicts a man mined by a `legacy of a thousand pounds, and sleeping under a four-legged table because vemindedlitn of the days when he used to sleep in a four-post bed. This -last touch about the -bed is humorous, but 'the substance of the story is dry narrative only."
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