LErrEns FROM A RECLUSE.
NO. V.
I HAVE now the three newspapers before me for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday ; and I find their remarkable matter to be—the changes in the French Ministry ; three murders, one for every number, and not in Ireland; an extraordinarily large turnip, reared at Dumfries ; and the Chronicle editor's opinion of the Gallopade. As for the murders, I note this circumstance in them all, that they invariably appear to ly.! the acts of the most amiable men. A gentleman of Manchester, offended by some jokes at a fair, pulls out a pistol, and shoots a person who had interposed to moderate his anger. In conclusion, we are told, he was much respected by a large circle of friends—of an amiable disposition, but irritable temper.
I am not sufficiently conversant with present customs to know whe- ther it is usual for amiable men of irritable tempers to go about with pistols in their pockets. The Dumfries turnip is, I think, of that pattern which you have oc- casionally alluded to in your paper as the journalist's pis alter :— " We were shown yesterday a turnip of the globe species, which was cut a month ago on Mr. *Gill's farm at Cargenholm, and which weighed origi- nally, as many persons can attest, 351bs. some odd ounces. Even yet its weight and circuniference are alike remarkable, the former being upwards of 2dlbs., and the latter 3 feet 7 inches. A larger vegetable of the sort has rarely been seen; and as it is perfectly sound, solid, and swe,_ t, a hog or wedder might dine and sup on it a whole week, and still be a stranger to the misery of being placed on short commons" Of the Gallopade the Chronicle writes thus- " Those of the uninitiated who desire to know what that rage of fashionable life, the Gallopade, was, is, and ought to be, must consult The Court Journal of Saturday, where the secret of its vogue in England is traced to its source ; all the first-rate Gallopaders pointed out and criticised, and the two factions into which its votaries are divided duly distinguished—the Schartzenburghers from the Redernches. Though it would be difficult to detect the hand which has produced this piquant paper, no one can be mistaken as to time station which its writer holds in flue class of society referred to."
Pray explain to me, how newspaper editors come to be so univer- sally accomplished, as well as informed. The Chronicle says that though it would be difficult to detect the Gallopade writer's hand, no one can be mistaken as to his footing; but I would fain know by what marks the learned editor detects it. Is he indeed as critical in dancing as in political economy ? I have been reading PAUL-Lours COURIER, and find him an author oreatly to my taste. Have you seen this passage in his correspondence ? —which reminds me of many similar instances of incomprehensible approbation that I have noticed even from my solitary nook : "I sometimes meet with M. Legouvd, whose name is known to you ; and have heard him say things which have surprised me of a dramatic piece now going through its first performances. For example, he much approves these verses delivered by a lover, who having believed his mistress false, is restored to confidence by her asseverations of innocence,— 'Alas! I believe thee more than truth itself.'
This thought, if it be one, was extremely applauded riot only by M. Legouv6, but by all the spectators. I comprehended that by this turn the author meant to embellish the natural but somewhat hyperbolic expression, ' I believe you more than myself—in preference to my eyes;' and Iperceived that those who may one day wish to push that sentiment further, will not find it easy to say any thing stronger. But M. Legouve observed to me, that people do not always believe the truth, but what they take for it; and that the author, who is one of his friends, intended to say, I believe you more than the evidence,' but that he had been unable to accommodate that sense to the measure of his time."
This recalled to my mind an anecdote in which the same thought is to be found much less subtilized or volatilized, as the chemists say. A faithless heroine, surprised in a state allowing of no doubt, denies the fact hardily. But objects the injured lover—" What, I see !" — " Oh cruel man," she answers, " you love me no longer, for if you loved, you would believe me rather than your eyes ! " A passage much admired, in one of }SYRON'S tales, is of a parallel character. I quote from memory, but am sure it runs to this effect,— a word may be wrong, but the sentiment is accurately represented: . . . " If dream it was that thus could overthrow
A mind that needed not ideal woe,
Such as we know is false, yet dread in sooth, Because the worst is ever nearest truth."
Here it is predicated that the thing is known to be false, but it is dreaded, because, though known to be false, it has a quality of evil which is apprehended from its probability of truth I—or in other words, a probability prevails against the consciousness of a fact.
The position might be exemplified thus,—" I know that my esteemed friend John Thompson is at New York, and that he is not the John Thompson hung at Newgate ; but as the worst is commonly nearest truth, I will believe my John Thompson defunct by sentence of law." Is this a reasonable condition of mind, and fit-for the painting of poetry ? How much we read without giving it a sense, or an inquiry, and by a mere acceptation of words, on the credit of reputation ! Natural as SHAKSPEARE himself is, what extraordinary offences against nature pass unnoticed in him ! Take the scene in Hamlet, where the Queett tells Laertes that his sister's drowned. What does he say on so sud- den and sad an intimation ?—Where—the locus in quo is his concern, or rather curiosity I and the person who has to communicate to a bro- ther the circumstances of his sister's death, goes by the way into a description of a willow.
Newspaper reporters to this day communicate dismal stories after the aforesaid Queen's method, though without her poetry ; and if they relate the leap of-a despairing nymph into the Thames, they leave her in the water while they stop to inform us how a lady fainted at wit- nessing the act of horror, and a gentleman had his pocket picked of a pewter snuffbox; after which particulars, the person is taken out of the water, and restored by the Humane Society ; her restoration, however, never being confessed till every particle of her dress has been minutely described.
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