THALATTA.*
THE very clever author of this book says of one of his characters that he was a man " who would have bet on the Resurrection ;" and his own book suggests the sort of mind which, while fully appreciating the infinite value and consequences of that divine event, would rather be disposed to applaud it as the winning card of a great Providential policy, than to adore it as the final act in the revelation of the Eternal Nature. The book is professedly written by an admirer of the Canning-Disraeli school of politics, and mingles with politics frequent considerations of those intel- lectual and religious truths which skirt the border, and determine the outline, of political convictions and combinations. The author of Thalatta shows real faculty for discerning deep truth, but also an unconquerable disposition to French-polish it when he has. found it, and to consider that he has improved it, and ren- dered it presentable in society by the process. If we were to read only the artificial portions of this book, we should say that a more * Malaita; or, Me Great Commoner. A Political Romance. Parker, Son, and Bourn;
histrionic and radically superfine mind had never meddled with fiction ; for we almost see the author's eyes glancing out at cor- ners to watch how the beautiful thoughts tell on his readers. Again, in other passages, there is a clearness of insight and boldness of statement which we should think quite incompatible with the airs and graces of the other portions. And at times the two are closely intertwined. But everywhere there is a running current
of sympathy with Mr. Disraeli's deeply-rooted idea that transcen- dental truths are a much neglected store of political capital, which an adroit politician may bend to his own purposes and use as a very effective knife for opening the oyster of the world. There is something very naïf in the sketch which this author gives us of his ideal " great Co mmoner," Mr. Mowbray, who is, as he admits, partly drawn from Mr. Canning, partly from Mr. Disraeli, but, on the whole, we think, more from the latter than the former. It is, we conclude, meant to be the sketch of a man who has less of "dramatic untruthfulness" in him than any other politician of the day—for the hero of the book, while eloquently agreeing that "dramatic untruthfulness" is the great vice of the day, says,
" I should like to be near Mowbray. He is my political creed in the meantime ; and I really think he represents all that is freest and worthiest in our political life." Yet Mr. Mowbray is stated to have begun, like Mr. Disraeli, his political career by forming a connection with a " feeble and dispirited" party, " in order that he might the more effectively gratify his hostility against Lord Stafford ;" and the delineation of him is expressly the delineation of a consummate actor. For example :-
" He had rehearsed his career, and, consequently, he played his part with infinite accuracy and precision. And it was from this, moreover, that he never publicly manifested irritation, or annoyance, or vented his anger in the infelicitous language of passion. He was not moved, because he was thoroughly prepared. When he was indeed touched—when it did seem as though the insult had reached him, through the cold and haughty reserve of his nature—he never allowed himself to forget that be repre- sented an important historical character. Even his passion was made subservient to his art. There was nothing impulsive or spontaneous in its expression. It had been anxiously adapted to serve a particular pur- pose—perhaps to cover a bitter retort, which could not be tolerated except from a very angry and conscientious man. Consequently, in this light, Mr. Mowbray never appeared more severely artistic or artificial than when he was utterly in earnest."
And, as the ideal statesman of the book is " never more artificial than when wholly in earnest," so the writer himself is certainly never quite easy unless he has managed to put a good thought into an artificial dress. The title of the book is a studied affair, and, let us add, a inistake. The " sea," Thalattu, has exceedingly little to do with the conception of the tale, though it is brought for- ward a good deal, and sometimes finely described, sometimes send- mentally manipulated till we are almost persuaded that the ocean is an essential part of fashionable life. If one could be repelled from a really able book by an intolerably affected and conceited prologue, the following rhapsody to "violet-eyed Evadne," in the style of Sir Piercie Shafton, and from an author who makes it a part of his creed to believe in the transcendental influence of "the sea " over character, would surely effect it for us :- "It has been a lovely morning tide ; but the noon is sultry and lowering, and a picturesque ridge of storm-charged cloud stretches along the sea- line in our wake. To-night we shall have a blow,—a lash of rain, and the wind rattling among the rigging. But now it is calm as Eternity, or as that still marble face which has never deigned even to smile upon our pain. 0 violet-eyed Evadne, grant us thy peace ! Let us know the truth once and for ever. The bleeding heart may break, but death is preferable to this intolerable toothache. We pray for rest,—rest, rest,—in etterna pace. But the still maiden stirs not, answers not ; only looks with those clear cold eyes—cold and elemental as the winter stars—right away past us into the outermost horizon."
Again, just as the statesman, the sea, and the whole of nature are treated—now thoughtfully and truly valued for themselves now electrotyped with false sentiment—so also is the human and religious life of the book partly excellently pictured, and partly tortured into ornate effects ; true and fine thoughts are thrown into attitudes of studied elegance, and we scarcely know whether to be most angry that a man who can think so well will write so foppishly—or that a fop who delights in such silly con- ceits should so often stumble on a deep vein of noble thought. Thera is very little unity of any sort in the volume. The sketches of Scotch fishermen are the simplest and most dramatic elements in it, but they are rather fragmentary. The principal elements are, we suppose, intended to be threaded together by the influence of the ocean, except the ideal Minister's career; and even of it we are told that his eloquence in invective resembled an "Atlantic storm." Butthere are many elementsin the book entirely independentof the sea, as, for example, a certain SirJasper Trelawny, apparently in some measure intended for Sir James Graham, though far from it flattering likeness even of that oily statesman,
If the story has any direct teaching at all, it is that we want men, not measures, to reform our political and social abuses,—the living spirit of a great statesman, not " legislative antidotes," in the constitution. We should be more inclined to accept this teaching, if the practical illustration given us by our author were not so ambiguous. Men at the helm are more important than measures, whenever they have a wide, steady, keensighted poli- tical faith, because then they have in them the sources of all healing measures, and may be relied on to take such measures as the hour demands. They are, in that case, the tree of which " good measures " are but the fruits, and to think less of the living fountain than of the special result, is the same kind of error as that of relying more on the constitution than on the nation, or more on the letter than on the spirit of the law. But then, iu this sense, the man whom the nation wants must have a political faith far larger and higher than himself, principles which guide all his actions, not merely a stock of moveable ideas which he invests in brilliant specula- tions. The author of Thalatta is very hesitating in his conception of the statesman whom he would trust ; but generally he appears as one who dazzles the country with the glitter of his rhetoric, not one who serves the truth, but who acts the part of a showy human providence in manipulating it for his own purposes. Now, thesmallest statesman who adheres fanatically to a narrow creed, would have a healthier influence on the country, than one who stands above his principles, and manoeuvres them for his own purposes. And as such generally Mr. Mowbray appears. He is, as we have seen, at first described as an unscrupulous political speculator, who forms a combination for his own vindictive ends ; and this, at least, does not incline us to think of him as a man whose value to the country is intrinsically greater than any legislation. Afterwards, when he enters actually upon the scene, we have only one or two brilliant sayings attributed to Mr. Canning—such as that empty piece of rhetoric, which experience has proved to be empty, about "calling the new woeld in to existence to redress the balance of the old "—and a witty reply, which we think we have also heard attributed-to the same statesman on the application of some nobleman for the Thistle—"No,—he would eat it." We are told, indeed, that he loved freedom better than all things ; but this is exceediugly vague, and, on the whole, the merit of the man is rather represented as consisting in his brilliancy than in the earnestness of his faith. Now epigrammatic brilliancy and parliamentary tact are not the qualities which raise a man above measures, for they secure no living supply of that guiding justice and healing wisdom which will ensure the right measures at the right time.
However, there are wise thoughts and glimpses of true insight about the book which make us willing to apply to it a fine re- mark made by the author on a very different subject. After discussing the conscious pettiness, and yet real disinterestedness, of many human virtues, the observation is made,— " To all which there is only one reply,—' We are greater than we know.' No man, and no woman, perhaps, is altogether aware of what his or her motives in any one case are. Those that lie on the surface are not the only ones involved. The cup of cold water has been given, and though, as you think, you have ticketed all the virtues it represents, you will be taught some time that the moat subtle—those that partake most of the Divine beneficence—have eluded your coarse scrutiny. That homely sense of duty—on what does it rest ? Whence does it derive its unfaltering constancy? On the side turned to you there is nothing very admirable, as you say ; but to be even meanly and basely constant is not consistent with the only elements your analysis has recovered. The chivalry of the hero, and the charity of the saint, may not be very different from the unromantic devotion of the sinner ; but this happens, perhaps,—not because the gold in every case is counterfeit,—but because it is tried in each. The deserted outcast rises to the level of a sacrificing charity, of a divine forgiveness, as well as the heroic and blameless king."
This is true and deep philosophy, and we will give the benefit of it to the author's delineation of this model statesman, Mr. Mowbray. Perhaps the author had something much deeper in his mind than he was able to bring out. Perhaps he confused himself too much with the wit of Canning and the eloquent tinsel of Disraeli. Perhaps his own inability to throw off his admiration for the conceited badinage of fashionable talk, has given him a tendency to disbelieve in any political earnestness, which is not at least masked and silvered over with some self- ish or worldly exterior ; and so, it may be, his own interior conception of Mowbray is greater, not only than we know, but than he knows himself. The author calls himself an adherent of "the silver-fork" school of fiction ; but we should have said that the term is both too good and too bad for him ;—its artificial and lackadaisical elements belonging rather to the plated-fork school. But cleared of this histrionic tendency, there are in Thalatta fine thoughts, solid convictions, and considerable literary power, which make themselves felt even through the superfine manner.
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