MISS MOZLEY'S ESSAYS.* Miss MOBLEY'S literary work in connection with
the publica- tion of her brother's letters and the correspondence of Cardinal Newman, was marked by an excellence and a character of its own which ought to ensure a welcome for this volume of essays on various literary and social subjects. Prefixed to the essays is a short memoir written by her sister, which gives a pleasant picture of the quiet, uneventful home existence in which, with the occupation of constant literary work, Miss Mozley passed the greater part of her long life. The force and freshness of her mind, the power she possessed of clear and accurate expression, the eager interest that helped her to enter into the reality and character of a subject to which she had turned her thoughts, could not fail to give a distinction and character to her writings. But, as the memoir shows, her attraction was much more than a merely intellectual one. The cleverness, the humour, the quick power of percep- tion, which showed so readily in her writing and conversation,
• Essays from Blackwood." By Anne Wonky. Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons.
only made part of a nature singularly simple and unassuming. And the approach of old age seemed only to bring out more clearly the qualities which made her so interesting and un- usuat—the charming touch of humility, the readiness to appreciate the work of others, the deference to their opinion and wishes, the youthful power of enjoyment in what was passing round her. Through her brothers, and through the close connection which had grown up between her family and that of Cardinal Newman, Miss Mozley had unusual oppor- tunities of observing the chief actors in the Oxford Move- ment. The history of the period was familiar to her in much of its detail, and her knowledge stood her in good stead when she undertook the great work of editing Cardinal Newman's Oxford correspondence. And in addition to this knowledge, she could recall and hand on with all the freshness of persona/ recollection, many of those smaller and more incidental traits of character and personality, those little homely details, that belong to intimate and affectionate intercourse, and that add so much significance to the lines of the more formal historical portrait. To Miss Mozley, as to so many of her contem- poraries, the history of the Oxford Movement represented the great experience and enthusiasm of her life. Its aim and teaching, its successes, its pathetic disappointments, were recalled and treasured with a loyalty and interest which never flagged. She had caught from its spirit the simplicity and un- worldliness which were among its most striking characteristics, and which were seldom absent in those who had come under the influence of Cardinal Nevrman's teaching. There is some- thing sad in watching the passing away, one by one, of a generation which has served as a link between the present and a past so widely different. So much goes with it of ex- perience and wisdom, so much dies out of tradition and recollection, that had its part in making the past a living reality.
The essays reflect very faithfully the character and scope of Miss Mozley's mind. How good her literary criticism could be is shown in the article on Adam Bede, and in the essay on La Bruyere, in whose keen satire and delicately worked portraits she finds congenial material for suggestive and ap- preciative comment. Her acquaintance with the literature, both French and English, of the last century was con- siderable; and the skilful use she makes of her know- ledge in many of the essays, gives her work a certain. freshness and character,—more marked, perhaps, to modern readers, to whom, except in name, many of Miss Mozley's favourite authors have almost the unexpectedness of a new discovery. But it is when she is dealing with some trait of character, some fact of general experience, some easily recognised generality, that Miss Mozley writes most freely, with all the ease and enjoyment of one who knows her ground, and is confident in her conclusions. Essays such as those on "Temper," on "Social Hyperbole," on "The Four Ages," are full of good sense and accurate observation and apt illustration, with a touch of Miss Austen-like skill and humour about them, which lifts them above all charge of commonplace. It is, perhaps, scarcely possible to escape altogether in writing of this kind from the dangers of generalising. Such work is apt sometimes to run a little thin before it has completed its allotted number of pages, even when it is supplemented by the personal experience and sin- cere conviction of the writer. But at its best it is the pleasant reading which belongs to the record of all kindly and acute observation of the homely and familiar instincts, thoughts and failings of ordinary men. If we find nothing surprisingly original, we often come upon some touch of human nature caught with a quick eye to truth, and expressed by some happy turn of phrase ; and there are passages which go further, and penetrate into the deeper and more subtle ele- ments of character with real force and insight.
The amusing and clever essay, "Schools of Mind and Manners," seems to us to have a higher and more permanent interest, and both in its literary merit and its sound judgment to show Ansa Mozley's work at its best. The title is not quite fortunately chosen, for the education that ins Mozley advocates is much less an intellectual one, than a training that shall aim at cultivating in character the grace and charm of considerateness and good manners. Good manners, as she understands them, are much more than a natural gift or a graceful accomplishment. To her eye, they possess a distinct ethical value, and are full of significance as the expression and outcome of character. The essay is evidently written from the experience of a training on the old lines, that can recall the strict discipline of silence and patience and respectful attention, which used to be enforced on childrenin the presence of their elders; and there is much in it that offers suggestive and curious contrast to modern theories. Miss Mozley scarcely does justice to the characteristic excellence which, with whatever drawbacks, certainly belongs to the present method of education, where the strictness that made part of the training of manners has been transferred to the discipline of mind. With all the ease and freedom, and the eqnality of intercourse, with which children move in their homes nowa- days, there is undoubtedly a reality and thoroughness and accuracy enforced in all intellectual training, which may be in itself more of a discipline to character than Miss Mozley seems quite willing to allow. But, after all, an essay of this kind scarcely pretends to be an exhaustive survey of so great a question. It is enough that it calls attention, with the force of conviction and experience, to one aspect of it which at pre- sent is certainly not too much insisted upon.
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