This is not the proper spirit for
the satirist. If he wields his pen in support of such a theory he will
do more harm than good. A conventionality is not necessarily bad or
contemptible merely as such. Not a promiscuous and indiscriminate
slashing, but a careful pruning is the proper method in the garden of
society. The indiscreet hand will cut what it should leave, and leave
perhaps what might have been better sacrificed. The artificial trellises
whereon we train our feeble virtues, which may hardly stand by their own
strength, must not be shattered in a general slaughter of weeds which
have taken root and nourishment in the rank soil of fashionable
etiquette. Let us not dash the image from the altar, nor quench the fire
at the shrine, before we have another idol and another shrine to give to
the old worshippers, who must worship still. Such reckless iconoclasm is
too dangerous. It is in this point of discretion that our author is most
reprehensible. The moral tone of his works might have been improved had
his independent tendencies been rather more judiciously indulged. There
is, however, one character of loveliness and purity almost sufficient to
leaven the whole mass and to dash our entire reprehension. In all the
scope of our novel reading, nowhere do we remember to have met a more
exquisitely charming character than that of fair Constance Brandon.
Every charm of spirit and of person is lavished upon her. At the same
time she is conceived with faultless taste.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99