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It was characteristic of Madame Vandeleur, that whilst she could, of course, with the most perfect ease, have undone what she had done, and so relieved herself of this unwonted mental disturbance, the course was one which she never for an instant contemplated. In her own view, the opinions and actions of this strange little woman appeared to partake of the nature of the laws of the ancient Medes and Persians. Once formed or entered upon, she regarded them as irreversible.

(To be continued.)

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MORE VIEWS OF JANE AUSTEN.

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N author who shall kindle into enthusiasm critics so diverse in character as Sir Walter Scott, Sir James Mackintosh, Archbishop Whately, and Lord Macaulay, must-in a literary sense-be in possession of the philosopher's stone. Such an author was the gifted woman whose name appears at the head of this article. Like Shakespeare, she took, as it were, the common dross of humanity, and by her wonderful power of literary alchemy, turned it into pure gold. Yet she was apparently unconscious of her strength, and in the long roll of writers who have adorned our noble literature there is probably not one so devoid of pedantry or affectation, so delightfully self-repressive, or so free from egotism, as Jane Austen. Her life passed calmly and smoothly, resembling some translucent stream which meanders through our English meadows, and is never lashed into anger by treacherous rocks or violent currents. The lover of books, who turns from the rush and strife of existence in quest of intellectual solace and recreation, will discover in this writer a perennial spring of enjoyment and satisfaction.

Miss Austen was the daughter of the Rev. George Austen, Rector of Steventon, in Hampshire; but the family was of Kentish origin, and had been established for upwards of a century and a half before the future novelist's birth in the neighbourhood of Sevenoaks. Like many of the ancient families in the Weald of Kent-some of whose descendants have become large landed proprietors, while others have been ennobled-the Austens were clothiers. To these clothiers was given the generic designation of the Gray Coats of Kent. Miss Austen's father having become an orphan at the age of nine, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle, and received a liberal education, proceeding from Tunbridge School to Oxford. He obtained a fellowship at St. John's College. In 1764 we find him settled in Hampshire, in possession of the joint rectories of Deane and Steventon, and united in marriage to Cassandra, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Thomas Leigh, of the well-known Warwickshire family of that name. Miss Austen's faculty of humour probably came from her immediate ancestors on the maternal side. One of the Leighs, who held the Mastership

of Balliol for upwards of half a century, was especially distinguished for his wit. Two of his jeux de mots, which were worthy of Sydney Smith in his best days, we must reproduce. A dispute having arisen among the Privy Councillors, it was reported that the Lord Chancellor struck the table with such violence that he split it. "No, no," interposed Dr. Leigh, "I can hardly persuade myself that he split the table, though I certainly believe he divided the Board!" The other incident occurred only a few days before the Master's death. Having been informed that an old acquaintance had recently married and just recovered from a long illness, the result of eating eggs, and being further told that the wits said he had been egged on to matrimony, the Doctor capped the joke by the double pun, "Then may the yoke sit easy on him!" From which we perceive that there is no necessary divorce between humour and divinity.

A very entertaining Memoir of Jane Austen was given to the world some years ago by her nephew, the Rev. J. E. Austen Leigh. It is stated in this biography that to Mr. George Austen and his wife was committed the charge of the infant son of the celebrated Warren Hastings. The child, however, did not live long, but at his death Mrs. Austen mourned for him as though he had been her own son. Mr. Austen Leigh furnishes us with a glimpse of rural life in the South of England a century ago. It seems scarcely possible that so short a space of time should have made such a difference, both as regards the enlightenment of the inner and the softening of the rugged and outer aspects of life in the rural districts. We read that, so lately as towards the close of the last century, "a neighbouring squire, a man of many acres," referred the following difficulty to Mr. Austen's decision. "You know all about these sort of things. Do tell us. Is Paris in France, or France in Paris? for my wife has been disputing with me about it." If such was the condition of the tolerably well-to-do, we may form some idea of the ignorance and degradation of the labouring classes. Many of these were totally unacquainted with the names of the most conspicuous figures in history; they knew nothing of God or the Bible; a few had heard of "Billy Pitt"; a rather larger number of "Boney"; but all knew of the existence of the Devil, though serious doubts have recently been thrown upon his personality. Altogether, the life of a country parson in the very secluded districts, where the best man of his acquaintance was only the average squire, could not have been of the most desirable and elevating character. Both Mr. and Mrs. Austen, however, were possessed of no ordinary mental parts, though it was from the latter (who lived to the great age of eightyeight, dying only in 1827) that Jane Austen derived the genius which

was destined to gain her high literary distinction. Yet the other members of the family were also far above the average in ability. The eldest son, James, had more than a passable career at Oxford, where he manifested considerable literary talent; while the two youngest, Francis and Charles, after a successful career in the navy, rose to the rank of admiral. The former lived until the year 1865, dying in his ninety-third year, G.C.B. and Senior Admiral of the Fleet. Charles Austen commanded the "Bellerophon" at the bombardment of St. Jean d'Acre in 1840. He was an especial favourite with all with whom he came into contact, and his death was a great grief to the whole fleet. Strong men wept when they heard of it. In disposition he is said to have greatly resembled his sister Jane. Her knowledge of seafaring matters and men is thus readily traced to its source, and some of the happiest passages in her novels are those in which she delineates and individualises naval character. Happily Jane Austen was not left to the ordinary rural society we have already depicted. There was the refinement of her own home, and to her mother and elder sister Cassandra-women of intellectual power and high and pure tone-Miss Austen was deeply attached. But, besides these home sources of culture and improvement as well as enjoyment, she found in the neighbourhood, as her biographer observes, "persons of good taste and cultivated minds. Her acquaintance, in fact, constituted the very class from which she took her imaginary characters, ranging from the member of Parliament or large landed proprietor to the young curate or younger midshipman of equally good family; and I think that the influence of these early associations may be traced in her writings, especially in two particulars. First, that she is entirely free from the vulgarity which is so offensive in some novels, of dwelling on the outward appendages of wealth or rank as if they were things to which the writer was unaccustomed ; and, secondly, that she deals as little with very low as with very high stations in life." There is great justice in these observations. Miss Austen did not strive for success through the questionable and meretricious means adopted by many writers; she had no unhealthy sensationalism on the one hand or essential vulgarity on the other. The greatest tribute to the innate strength of her literary powers is that, taking character as she found it, and without forcing or straining her means in the slightest degree, she achieved so much and preserved through all a consummate ease and naturalness.

It does, in truth, seem almost marvellous that one who for twenty-five years led so retired an existence should have developed in her books such a deep knowledge of human life. But the ways of genius are mysterious and profound. It assimilates knowledge under

apparently insuperable difficulties, and while the ordinary mind is dead and inert it is silently working with sleepless energy. Who can account for the universality of that greatest of all minds-the mind of Shakespeare-or trace the accumulation of its wealth? As in the blind the senses of hearing and of touch are apparently developed to a preternatural degree, so there seems to be given to men of genius a second range of powers whose action is beyond our comprehension, as their results are beyond our achievement. The quiet hedgerows, the rustic shrubberies and gardens, the little rural church, and the lanes and meadows of Steventon-such were the early teachers of Jane Austen. But she possessed that without which neither poet, artist, nor novelist has yet been able to communicate to others knowledge which was worth the having-viz., a keenly observant eye, which embraced everything within its vision. To minds so endowed there is neither small nor great, the mighty does not overshadow the minute, nor is there anything so small or mean in nature as to be viewed with contempt or dismissed with contumely. Genius is ever learning, and not infrequently the humblest sources furnish its loftiest inspirations.

At a very early age the cacoëthes scribendi came upon Jane Austen; but, unlike so many subsequent writers, she modestly concealed her efforts. Her compositions were only intended to amuse the family circle, and within this range they were strictly confined. Mr. Austen Leigh reprints a scene from an unfinished comedy, "The Mystery," which his relative wrote for the transitory amusement of the family party. It exhibits liveliness and vivacity, but nothing to show that its writer was possessed of original power. Yet this habit of early composition was not a useless one, and it was shortly to bear its legitimate fruit. As we give no thought to the scaffolding when some noble building is being reared, so we dismiss the preliminary processes by which an author first exercises and develops his faculties. Still, some of Miss Austen's most successful writing "was composed at such an early age as to make it surprising that so young a woman could have acquired the insight into character, and the nice observation of manners, which her novels display." It is stated that "Pride and Prejudice," considered by many persons the most brilliant of her novels, was begun in 1796, before she was twenty-one years of age, and completed in about ten months. Genius generally accomplishes its work early and rapidly, while talent develops its results slowly and laboriously. Sir Walter Scott wrote one of his finest novels in three months. It is one of the characteristics of genius to manifest itself under the most dis

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