for the approbation of the Almighty in a future state; and this habit of thinking is calculated, probably, beyond any other, (when sincerely cultivated,) to level all distinctions between the rich and the poor, the young and the old, and to introduce a practical equality among the individuals of the human race. : "This just and upright man had all his passions subdued under the control of his understanding there was but one subject, that, whenever it occurred, inflamed his blood and made his eyes sparkle with primitive and apostolic fury; and that was, the corruption of evangelical truth, and the grand apostacy foretold to us in the Scriptures. In a word, the spring, and main movement of his religious zeal, lay in this proposition; "that the Pope is Antichrist." I was well prepared to be a ready hearer of this doctrine: for, had not my father and my mother fallen untimely victims under the daggers of Irish Catholics? He was, if I may so express myself, the more like one posses sed, in speaking on this topic, for he claimed to be collaterally descended from John Bradford, the famous martyr in the reign of Queen Mary-a man who, in the flower of his life, defied all the torments of fire, for the sake of Jesus, and who scorned to purchase the clemency of his persecutors, by an engage ment, in the smallest degree, to remit his exertions to convert his fellow creatures from the errors of Popery." Mr. Bradford took especial care to fill the soul of his pupil with a holy abhorrence of all the abominations of the church of Rome, the enormity of which he daily set forth. On this oracle Man deville fixed his faith. With his uncle his only intercourse was a formal visit on a Sunday, in which perhaps not a word was interchanged. Mandeville had a sister; and after he had been nearly eight years under his uncle's roof, this sister came to spend a few days beneath it. She was one year younger than Mandeville,-and when compared with the inmates of the mansion, with whom he had been so long almost exclusively conversant, might well appear to him, without possessing preternatural endowments, a being of another world. He could hardly refrain from adoring her-she became to him, almost what Amelia had been to Audley. He had neither father, nor mother, nor brother-Henrietta supplied to him the place of all. But Henrietta soon returned to the friends by whom she had been protected and reared and shortly after Mr. Bradford sickened and died. Audley Mandeville now summoned energy enough to send his nephew to Winchester school. On his journey thither, our hero paid a visit to his sister, and became more indissolubly united to her. At Winchester, in the year 1650, when Mandeville was entered there, party ran high. The boys were generally royalists. Among his school-fellows Mandeville soon marked one as pre-eminent in geneThe name of this ral consideration. youth, who combined every advantage of person, with every excellence of mind and heart, was Clifford. At first, Mandeville was content to admire him with the rest, but Mandeville had none of those talents himself by which Clifford won the esteem and good-will of his companions; and he soon began to underrate accomplishments which he could not attain, and to repine at a reputation which he could not rival. There was also in the school, a boy by the name of Mallison, of some wit and of infinite malice, who affected to be a partisan of Clifford's. Clifford was descended from a noble but impoverished family, and cherished and avowed the utmost contempt for riches. What is more singular, he had the address to render the doctrine popular, that wealth is a disgrace, as the arts by which it is acquired are mean. A position of this kind was particularly annoying to the heir of the house of Mandeville. At any rate, from various causes Mandeville came to hate Clifford with a cordial hatred. He felt his superiority, he felt bound to act in some degree in reference to his estimate of his actions, he felt in short, that the presence or even the idea of Clifford, was a source of inexpressible uneasiness and mortification to him.There was yet another lad whom we must bring forward-his name was Waller. His father Sir William was a famous par liamentary general. To Waller, Mandeville attached himself, because he was in every respect the reverse of Clifford. Deformed and disgustful in his person, his person was still an idex of his mind. Waller had in his possession a set of carricatures of King Charles and his adherents, which he left in Mandeville's room-it was found by Mallison. Mandeville and Waller were both arraigned. before the prefects of the school, a puerile tribunal, to answer to a charge of the crimen læsæ majestatis. Waller, who was first interrogated, acknowledged that he had seen the offensive prints, but alleged that Mandeville had exhibited them to him. Mandeville, in the haughtiness of conscious truth,simply answered, that the book was not his, and that he had never seen it. The judges inclined to believe Waller. The accused were ordered to withdraw. When together in private, Waller threw himself on Mandeville's generosity to forgive his prevarication, and by glozing words, actually prevailed on him, tacitly to father the falsehood which he had uttered. Mandeville was disgraced, and was indignant at it. He fell into a fever and recovered-and was more enraged with Clifford than ever, because he was less pleased with himself. From Winchester Mandeville went to Oxford. Here he became acquainted with a distant relation of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury. For him he conceived a partiality founded principally upon his bodily infirmities, which in a little while terminated his life. Mandeville sedulously attended him in his extreme illness, and in the course of this attention became acquainted with Sir Anthony. The body of the deceased was removed to Sir Anthony's seat at Winbourne, whither Mandeville escorted it. During his sojourn here, he was commissioned by Sir Anthony to communicate with Col. John Penruddock, in regard to a project of deposing the Protector and setting up the King. On this mission, with proper credentials, Mandeville set out. He was received by Col. Penruddock in the most flattering manner, and was entered as a volunteer in his corps. Sir Anthony had recommended him as a fit person for confidential secretary to the commander in chief, Sir Joseph Wagstaff, and Col. Penruddock sanctioned the expectation that the recommendation would be effectual; but Sir Joseph had not the same faith in the loyalty of Sir Anthony, and he conceived his present overture a contrivance to fathom his counsels. He, therefore, on the proposition's coming before him, replied,that he had already provided himself with a Secretary. The person on whom his choice had fallen, proved to be Clifford. A rencontre so unexpected, and a triumph so signal, although without competition, pierced Mandeville to his heart's core. Full of present rage and shame, and reckless of consequences, he abruptly left the camp and returned to Oxford. An adventure which had resulted in so acute a disappointment,he did not divulge. He now contracted an intimacy with a young man of the name of Lisle, who on a minor scale was as much of a misanthropist as himself. One day in passing through the street he chanced to catch a glimpse of Mallison. From this malevolent jester he instinctively recoiled. He turned a corner, and endeavoured to shut him out of his mind as effectually as he had excluded him from his sight. This meeting, however casual, was attended with meinorable consequences to Mandeville. In a few days he observed the demeanour of all his acquaintances changed towards him. Even Lisle avoided him ;-from Lisle he felt entitled to demand an explanation. He received it; It was reported that he had been sent to Sir Joseph Wagstaff with a recommendation from Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,and would probably have been appointed his secretary, had not Clifford happily come forward, related the story of the pictures, and proved his disloyalty—that after this exposure he had precipitately deserted the troop in which he had enlisted, and secretly withdrawn himself from the cause which he had feigned to espouse. The unmollified recapitulation of a story in which truth and falsehood were so intricately interwoven, and which was calculated to affix so indelible a stigma on his honour, once more drove Mandeville mad. He sallied forth from his college, and the next morning was found by a woodman, in a pit, in the forest of Shotover. He was conveyed to a receptacle of lunatics at Cowley. His name being ascertained from papers found upon him, his friends were made acquainted with his situation. In this place, and in a state of perfect derangement, he remained for several weeks. But Henrietta attended him, and her presence at last called him to recollection. During his convalescence this beloved sister continued to cheer and sustain him, and became more than ever the object of his idolatry. It was not thought necessary to inform his uncle of his illness. When he was sufficiently reinstated in health,he accompanied Henrietta to Beau lieu, and renewed his intercourse with the family of Lord Montagu. It was, by degrees, disclosed to him that Clifford, the Clifford whom he had resolved for ever to abhor, was the lover, the favoured, the accepted lover of Henrietta. He received this intelligence with the spirit of a man-he even made an effort to meet Clifford with composure. They met-but the indomitable spirit of Mandeville again rebelled. He revolted from an incipient intelligence, which he found he could never reciprocate. He made a precipitate retreat, and immured himself, for three weeks, at a farm-house in Franklin. In this time he became discontented with himself, and with his situ ation, and returned to Beaulieu. He saw Henrietta again, but nothing was said of Clifford. At this time, Mandeville received a summons to the house of his uncle. A pettifogging, overreaching attorney, named Holloway, by an audacious procedure,had thrust himself into the company, and, in a measure, into the confidence of Audley Mandeville. The letter to our hero was from the steward. He immediately fulfilled its suggestions. On his arrival at Mandeville Hall, he found Mr. Holloway already assuming the air of a master-but Audley was in an extreme condition, and rather than interrupt the tranquillity of his last hours, our hero acquiesced in a testamentary disposition of his property, by which Halloway was left residuary legatee, and guardian of his sister. Henrietta was not permitted to marry without Halloway's consent. Mandeville now took up his residence with a Derbyshire. farmer. During his continuance in this abode, he had the pleasure of learning that Clifford had become a papist. It was a source of ineffable satisfaction, that his rival had turned apostate. Mallison was the nephew of Halloway, and by his arts became, in despite of prepossessions, the confident of Mandeville. Mallison had even the presumption to aspire to the hand of Henrietta, and Mandeville, though he did not directly abet, stupidly promoted the opportunities of his audacity. After many a vicissitude and struggle, the fates of Clifford and Henrietta seemed about to be united; such, however, was Mandeville's abhorrence of this match, that he was willing to sacrifice every prospect he had in life to defeat the connexion. Henrietta was, for a moment, weak enough to be willing to give up all her hopes of happiness, to realize the chimeras of a maniac. But the extravagance of his anticipations no abandonment could equal. The friends of Henrietta and of Clifford now counselled their union. Through Halloway and Mallison, Mandeville was informed of the resolution which had been adopted. He determined to render this resolution abortive. He hired a set of desperados to assist him, and waylaid his sister on a ride to Sir Thomas Fanshaw's, in a carriage of Lord Montagu's,and in company with his daughters. Clifford and the sons of Lord Montagu, who had just parted from these ladies, came to their rescue. In the battle which ensued, Mandeville received a cut from Clifford "full across (his) eye and left cheek." In the very onset Clifford had announced himself as Henrietta's busband. The marriage had taken place. This annunciation for ever rung in Mandeville's ear, and on the scar which he had received in this conflict, he unceasingly glowered. Here breaks off the narration. We regret that our limits have not permitted us to enter more fully into the details of a life, the events of which are supposed to be sufficient to produce a character like Mandeville's, as far as those details are furnished to us. We regret still more that the story is left incomplete and unsatisfactory. No clue is offered to assist us in conjecturing how Mandeville was induced so faithfully to rehearse a history in which he figures to so little advantage himself, and which, from the ill humour that he manifests,to the very last, towards the world, he can hardly be suspected of intending to convert to the benefit of others. We cannot believe any other than a penitent mind capable of viewing with irretorted the eye perspective of its experience, of reflecting with unflattering.fidelity the picture of its vices and its weaknesses; and deeply must that soul have been imbued with divine grace, profoundly penetrated with shame and with humility, that could unequivocally confess, even to itself, such damning truths' as Mandeville has babbled without reserve in the public ear. And yet Mandeville parts from us not only without intimating repentance for crimes which he affects not to palliate, but confirming himself in obduracy. That such a character as Mandeville's might exist,we do not deny-but that one possessing such a character should draw his own portrait, at full length, for vulgar gaze, is impossible. The pride, the overweening pride and exaggerated self-esti mation of Mandeville must effectually have restrained him from divulging the inmost secrets of his breast, to those whom he deemed unworthy of his converse on occasions the most indifferent. A great mind hoards its griefs-a wounded spirit scorns sympathy-true 'bitter ness of soul' does not Unpack itself with oaths, Whether the circumstances of Mandeville's lot were calculated to produce a character of that extraordinary and peculiar cast which is imputed to him, is questionable The effect of external pressure upon mind, as upon matter, is to create a resistance in the direction of that pres sure e-this resistance may indeed be overcome, but it requires not only violence, but perseverance, to destroy the elasticity either of body or of spirit. Powerful as were the influences exerted upon Mandeville's disposition by the associations of his boyhood-the unvindictive moroseness of his uncle, the stern kindnesses of Hilkiah, and the libellous landscape that environed their cheerless abode,-they seem not to have been of sufficient endurance to rupture the fibre, and destroy the recoil of his nature. His early removal to Winchester school broke the spell which was fastening upon him. Inadequate causes are assigned for subsequent effects,—his antipathy to Clifford, if not unnatural in its origin, was preposterous in its extent; his attachments were still more absurd and unaccountable than his dislikes; his conduct in the case of Waller was so contemptible as almost to eradicate all our regard for him; in his mission from Sir Anthony Cooper he acted like a dunce-his exactions from Henrietta were unreasonable and cruel-his surrender of himself to Halloway and Mallison was most mean and unmanly his conspiracy against his sister's happiness was detestable, devilish. Mr. Godwin, we presume, intended to hold up Mandeville as an example to deter from the indulgence of a morbid sensibility, by showing its folly and the misery which results from it. Every man of acute feeling gives way, at times, to such sombre imaginations as were perpetually haunting Mandeville. Each one of us is disposed, in his fits of gloom or of ennui, to regard himself as born under a singularly unfavourable conjunction of the stars; he sees or fancies something peculiarly malignant in his fate; other men have their adversities, but his transcend them in intenseness of infelicity; it is his hardship ever to have his fairest prospects blasted at the promised moment of fruition, to have his wisest schemes frustrated and his best actions misinterpreted; and, withal, he is so agonizingly susceptible of mental suffering, that what would be only a thumb-screw to another, is the wheel to him! Almost every one in seasons of despondency, whether brought on by disappointment or dyspepsy, conjures up such wretched fancies as these-but none but a hypochondriac habitually entertains them. It is degrading for a man to sink under real calamities, it is pitiful to become a prey to imaginary evils. Audley Mandeville succumbed to a heavy blow-our hero's distresses were but fillips. Andlev had he possessed common vigour, would have risen from the fall, but he determined to lie where he had been prostrated. One favourite hope was cut off, one avenue to happiness perhaps for ever shut against him; in mere despite he severed himself from the world, and barred up every portal of enjoyment. As well might a deaf man think to avenge himself for the loss of hearing, by depriving himself of sight. But if the conduct of Audley was weak and criminal, what shall we term that of his nephew? Mandeville was the author of his own sufferings. Nature and fortune had been liberal to him of their boons; and though his childhood was not free from sorrows and restraints, his adolescence presented him with a sufficient opportunity of exercising his natural inclinations, and with the means of gratifying his reasonable desires. Under these auspices he elected to be miserable. He commenced Arab and was dealt with as an Arab. The proffered hand of friendship he rejected. That selfishness which was the ruling principle of his life, to which he would have sacrificed the happiness of a sister, and which was destined to prove the bane of his own peace, discovered itself in the schoolboy envy which was the source of his indelible animosity towards Clifford. He deserved all the misfortunes which so base a passion entailed on him. Mandeville was no hero, save in his own estimation. He possessed none of those qualities which win love, or which command respect. If he was remarkable among his fellows, it was only for his infirmities. His continual and vociferous complaints are less indicative of the poignancy of his pains, than of his impatience under infliction. Yet such is his insufferable self-conceit,that he arrogates to himself a superiority over the generality of his species on the very score of his incapacity to undergo the common incidents of human life. This is not an unparalleled assumption, impudent and ridiculous as it may seem. There is many a man ignorant and irreverent enough to attempt to insert himself in the scroll of greatness, not on the ground of his strength, but of his debility-not that he has done and suffered much in a good cause, but that he is utterly unfitted for exertion or endurance under any exigency. To such heroes we can only say--"Prick me Bullcalf, till he roar again." As the character of Mandeville is alleged to have received its bent from the condition and concomitants of his childish reara we feel inclined to revert to the 話 2 circumstances which attended this ominous period; and we are sorry that our limits will not allow us to give them a full consideration. In returning to this inter-ble and the gentleman with the dust? Was esting age, with a view to its pleasures and its vexations, to its difficulties and its means of surmounting them, we are struck with the truth of our author's remark. "All those persons who have produced practical treatises on the art of education, have been men. The books are always written by those who are the professors of teaching, never by the subjects. Every author indeed was once a boy; but he seems to abjure the recollection of what he was, when he puts on the manly gown, and to have no consideration and forbearance for that state through which every man has passed, but to which no man shall return." We are compelled to refrain from tracing the course of discipline to which Mandeville was subjected in his boyish days, and which contributed to such pernicious results. We shall make a single extract in regard to a single particular.From a part we can sometimes form an idea of a whole. He whose experience has been in any degree analogous to that of Mandeville in the respect we allude to, will be at no loss to comprehend its tenor in every other point; and his experience must have been very different from ours, who does not recognize in the following relation something that he has felt or thought before. "One of Hilkiah's whims was, that in order to subdue the carnal pride of an unregenerate nature, it was good for me to be called occasionally to the exercise of those vulgar offices, which in the houses of people of family are ordinarily reserved for menials. Why should not I brush my own clothes, or black my own shoes? The Saviour of the world condescended to wash his disciples' feet; and the pope (though this was no recommendation to my preceptor) has his anniversary, when he observes the same ceremony to this day. To the evangelical motives for this dis cipline, Hilkiah added others drawn from she stores of philosophy. Nothing could be more precarious than the favours of fortune; and, if I might some day fall into the situation of being obliged to subsist by the exertions of my own industry, why should I not now, in the pliant years of youth, anticipate this necessity? I was a man, before I was a gentleman; it was good therefore, that I should not be wholly ignorant of the true condition of man on this sublunary stage, that I should be somewhat acquainted with his plain and genuine state, and not only with the refinements of artificial society. We lived in the midst of the confusions of a civil war; who could tell at what point all this violence might terminate? As the presbyterian had subdued the episcopalian, and the independent the presbyterian, might not the fifth monarchy-man finally get the start of all, and level the proud fortunes of the noit not good to be prepared for these changes? The most enviable character that could fall to the lot of man, was independence; this was the goal, however mistakingly pursued, which men aspired to, when they sought af ter wealth, and "joined house to house, and field to field," with insatiable greediness. But the man of true independence is he that suffices to himself, and stands in no need of another. And this doctrine my preceptor illustrated by the known story of Diogenes, who, when he was told that Menas, bis slave, had turned runaway, exclaimed, "Aha! can Menas do without Diogenes, and cannot Diogenes do without Menas?" "It may seem but a childish tale; but I cannot express with what loathings I was seized, when I was called upon to put in practice this lesson of humility. I remember an occasion when it was necessary to remove some logs of wood from one side of the farm yard, the only creditable and well arranged appendage to our mansion, to another side. This appeared to my preceptor a desirable opportunity for the practical illustration of his lessons. I was yet a mere urchin; and the task assigned me was considerably appor tioned to my strength.-After all, this was certainly an injudicious mode of enforcing moral truth. An accountable and voluntary being cannot be made better, but by enlight ening his understanding. Morality has nothing to do, but with actions chosen by their performers. Where there is absolute com mand on one side, and unconditional submission on the other, a useful result as to external circumstances may be achieved; but there cannot be a particle of good moral sense implanted by what is thus done under the bare influence of authority. "No doubt I was a proud creature; and, as I have already said, I never was a boy. As I did not appear born to feel the hard band of necessity, I expected to bend only to my own will, and to consult my own judgment, in every thing I did. I understood something of the importance of lessons, and I willingly complied in whatever related to that point I was desirous of possessing all the advan tages of education, and all the information that falls to the lot of an ingenuous youth, destined to fill an honourable station in life. And lessons, a progress to be made in lan guages or in science, possess all the character of a system of mechanism, and accordingly are as readily submitted to, as the order our meals, or the putting on of our clothes. It is principally where the caprice of him who has authority shows itself, where the wand of command is exhibited in abrupt nakedness, that the heart of the prond one revolts. Whatever proceeds in unvaried uniformity, or in stated and regular progres sion, we subscribe to without a murmur. What is thus prescribed, we acknowledge to be intended for our benefit; and the reason |
