My ghost can't walk; for, oh, my legs "Lord! think when I am swimming round, "One half is here, the other half "But now, adieu!-a long adieu! THE ART OF BOOK-KEEPING. How hard, when those who do not wish Who call and take some favorite tome, They thus complete their set at home I, of my "Spenser" quite bereft, My "Mallet" served to knock me down, " Walker." While studying o'er the fire one day, They pick'd my "Locke," to me far more And now my losses I deplore, Without a "Home" on earth. If once a book you'll let them lift, For though I caught them stealing "Swift," "Hope" is not now upon my shelf, Where late he stood elated; Even "Glover's" works I cannot put Though ever since I lost my "Foote" My "Hoyle" with "Cotton" went oppress'd; I "Prior" sought, but could not see 'Tis quite enough my griefs to feed, To think I cannot read my "Reid," My life is ebbing fast away; I suffer from these shocks; And though I fix'd a lock on “Gray,” There's gray upon my locks. I'm far from "Young,' -am growing pale; I see my "Butler" fly; And when they ask about my ail, "Tis "Burton," I reply. They still have made me slight returns, And thus my griefs divide; For, oh, they cured me of my "Burns," But all I think I shall not say, Nor let my anger burn, For, as they never found me "Gay," 30* SYDNEY SMITH, 1771-1845. THIS most accomplished scholar and very original writer was born at Woodford, near London, in the year 1771. He was educated at Winchester College, and thence elected to New College, Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship. He was ordained to curacy in Wiltshire, and afterwards, in 1801, was among the foremost of the projectors of the Edinburgh Review. But it is altogether better that he should speak for himself, as his subsequent movements are thus most agreeably noticed in the preface to the recent edition of his collected works: FOUNDATION OF THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. When first I went into the church, I had a curacy in the middle of Salisbury Plain. The squire of the parish took a fancy to me, and requested me to go with his son to reside at the University of Weimar before we could get there, Germany became the seat of war, and in stress of politics we put in to Edinburgh, where I remained five years. The principles of the French Revolution were then fully afloat, and it is impossible to conceive a more violent and agitated state of society. Among the first persons with whom I became acquainted were Lord Jeffrey, Lord Murray (late Lord Advocate for Scotland), and Lord Brougham; all of them maintaining opinions upon political subjects a little too liberal for the dynasty of Dundas, then exercising supreme power over the northern division of the island. One day we happened to meet in the eighth or ninth story or flat in Buccleugh Place, the elevated residence of the then Mr. Jeffrey. I proposed that we should set up a review; this was acceded to with acclamation. I was appointed editor, and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number of the Edinburgh Review. The motto I proposed for the Review was— "Tenui musam meditamur avená." "We cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal." But this was too near the truth to be admitted, and so we took our present grave motto' from Publius Syrus, of whom none of us had, I am sure, ever read a single line; and so began what has since turned out to be a very important and able journal. When I left Edinburgh, it fell into the stronger hands of Lord Jeffrey and Lord Brougham, and reached the highest point of popularity and success. I contributed from England many articles, which I have been foolish enough to collect and publish with some other tracts written by me. 1 JUDEX DAMNATUR, CUM NOCENS ABSOLVITUR,-The judge is condemned, when the guilty is acquitted. To appreciate the value of the Edinburgh Review, the state of England at the period when that journal began should be had in remembrance. The Catholics were not emancipated,―the Corporation and Test Acts were unrepealed,-the Game Laws were horribly oppressive, Steel Traps and Spring Guns were set all over the country,-Prisoners tried for their Lives could have no Counsel,-Lord Eldon and the Court of Chancery pressed heavily upon mankind,-Libel was punished by the most cruel and vindictive imprisonments, the principles of Political Economy were little understood, the Law of Debt and of Conspiracy were upon the worst possible footing, the enormous wickedness of the Slave-Trade was tolerated,- -a thousand evils were in existence, which the talents of good and able men have since lessened or removed; and these effects have been not a little assisted by the honest boldness of the Edinburgh Review. I see very little in my reviews to alter or repent of: I always endeavored to fight against evil; and what I thought evil then, I think evil now. I am heartily glad that all our disqualifying laws for religious opinions are abolished, and I see nothing in such measures but unmixed good and real increase of strength to our Establishment. The idea of danger from the extension of the Catholic religion in England I utterly deride. The Catholic faith is a misfortune to the world; but those whose faith it conscientiously is, are quite right in professing it boldly, and in promoting it by all means which the law allows. A physician does not say, "You will be well as soon as the bile is got rid of;" but he says, "You will not be well until after the bile is got rid of." He knows, after the cause of the malady is removed, that morbid habits are to be changed, weakness to be supported, organs to be called back to their proper exercise, subordinate maladies to be watched, secondary and vicarious symptoms to be studied. The physician is a wise man; but the anserous politician insists, after two hundred years of persecution and ten of emancipation, that Catholic Ireland should be as quiet as Edmonton or Tooting. Again he says,— To set on foot such a journal in such times, to contribute towards it for many years, to bear patiently the reproach and poverty which it caused, and to look back and see that I have nothing to retract, and no intemperance and violence to reproach myself with, is a career of life which I must think to be extremely fortunate. After his removal to London, Mr. Smith continued for many years one of the most active contributors to the Edinburgh Review, writing on Prison Discipline, on the abuses and corrupting influence of the Game Laws, on Transportation to Botany Bay, on Toleration, on Methodism, on Education, on Irish Bulls, on Quakerism, on Counsel for Prisoners, on Chimney-Sweepers, and a variety of other topics. In this great city he became an extremely popular preacher, and he had among his crowded auditory the wealthy, the titled, and the learned. It was thought that his wit, acumen, and learning might be displayed to better advantage elsewhere than in the pulpit. He, therefore, became a lecturer on the Belles-Lettres at the Royal Institution, and his lectures were, of course, attended by overflowing audiences. About this time he wrote the celebrated Letters of Peter Plymley, the object of which was to rescue the claims of the Irish Catholics from the vast mass of prejudice and false reasoning with which the public mind was filled. They are among the most amusing and interesting publications of this century. Written in the best spirit of controversy, they abound in happy illustrations and caustic wit; and though light, lively, and sparkling, these qualities abate nothing of their logical force and downright common sense. In 1806 the Lord Chancellor gave him the rectory of Foston,1 in Yorkshire, whither he removed, and, under great difficulties, which he most humorously recounts, rebuilt the old parsonage. Here he remained fourteen years, until his appointment by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst to a vacant stall in Bristol Cathedral. In 1831 he was appointed by Earl Grey one of the canons residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral, and resided in London during "the season," associating with the chief literary men and Whig politicians of the day, distinguished for his almost unrivalled wit and conversational powers, and a constant visitor at Holland House.3 It is undoubtedly true that the prominent characteristic of Sydney Smith's mind was wit; and in this light he has been too exclusively viewed. "But his character ought to be estimated, and will be by posterity, on far higher grounds. When his 'quips and cranks' are lost and forgotten, it will be remembered that he supported the Roman Catholic claims, and that they were conceded; that he strenuously assailed the game-laws, and that they underwent great modification; that he compelled a large portion of the public to acknowledge the mischief of our penal settlements; that he became the advocate of the wretched chimney-sweepers, and their miseries were alleviated; that he contended against many of the unjust provisions of the Church Reform Bill, and they were amended; that, whereas, before his time, a man accused at the bar of a criminal court might be hanged before he had been half heard, now every prisoner has the benefit of a defence by counsel. It will further be 1 In his humorous way he said, "When I began to thump the cushion of my pulpit, on first coming to Foston,-as is my wont when I preach, the accumulated dust of a hundred and fifty years made such a cloud that for some minutes I lost sight of my congregation." better not to parade these. And in the regard of facing all difficulties with a cheerful heart, and nobly resolving to be useful and helpful in little matters as well as big, I think that life was as good a sermon as ever was preached from pulpit."-Recreations of a Country Parson, p. 125. "Sydney Smith had a genuine Christian sympathy with his fellow-creatures, and far more serious intentions in almost all he wrote than the gravest of his opponents could well imagine. He was an extraordinary man, and did a great deal of good.”—LEIGH HUNT's Wit and Humor. 2 Give me the man who can turn his hand to all things, and who is not ashamed to confess that he can do so; who can preach a sermon, nail up a paling, prune a fruit-tree, make a water-wheel or a kite for his little boy, write an article for Fraser, or a leader for the Times or the Spectator. What a fine, genial, manysided life did Sydney Smith lead at his York- 8 Holland House, in Kensington, was, during shire parish! I should have liked, I own, to the life of the late Lord Holland, the meeting have found in it more traces of the clergy-place for Whig politicians, and for the chief man; but perhaps the biographer thought it poets, painters, and scholars of the day. |