The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-06-26 00:00:00

WIT AND 11112,101111. The meaning of an extraordinary man is, that he is eight men, not one man ; that he has as much wit as if he had no sense, and as much sense as if he had no wit ; that his conduct is as judicious as if he were the dullest of human beings, and his imagination as brilliant as if he were irre trievably ruined. But when wit is combined with sense and information ; when it is softened by benevolence and re strained by principle ; when it is in the hands of a man who can use it and despise it ; who can be witty and something more than witty; who loves honour, justice, decency, good nature, morality, and religion ten thousand times better than wit ; wit is then a beautiful and delightful part of our nature. Genuine and innocent wit like this is surely the flavour of the mind. Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and sup port his life by tasteless food ; but God has given us wit, and flavour, and brightness, and laughter, and perfumes, to enliven the days of men's pilgrimage, and to charm his pained steps Over . the burning marle. • • `• In the above brief exttact,will be found an index to the mind , and a key. tO the conduct of the man him self :,, but it is less with the literary man and the scholar, the political partizan and the sharp critic that we desire to deal, than with the shrewd man of the world, the common-sense counsellor, and the lively domestic humourist—the facetious fireside companion, the loving and faithful husband, and the kind father. Of his qualities in the former capacity the world has already been sufficiently apprised; his peculiarities in the latter are less known, and in our humble judgment are much more valuable. In early life he married Miss Pybus, a young lady of great attractions, and some property, to whom ho had been long engaged, but whose brother and other relations objected to the marriage, on account of his want of fortune or very visible prospects of worldly preferment. In relation to this opposition he appears to have felt considerably, but, with his usual good-humour and sound sense, he treated it as farcical. Soon after their arrival in Edinburgh, from her paternal hearth, Sydney amused, if he did not entirely delight, his new-made wife, by the following mode of arranging his - worldly matters. In boyhood he was distinguished by the facility with which he mastered the difficulties of elementary and classical education ; and in early life gave decisive indications of that vivacious,. yet good-humoured wit, for which he became pre-eminent in manhood, and which to the day of his death con tinued-the marked peculiarity of his character. At the commencement of his academic career, he wished to study for the bar, but his father having expended all the pecuniary means which he could readily spare In preparing an elder brother for that profession, lie directed Sydney's attention and studies towards qualification for the Church, and with ready obedience he obeyed his father's injunction, adopting, there is great reason to believe, the sacred office as a profes sion, rather than following it, at least from the com mencement, as an instinctive and congenial impulse. It is but justice, however, to add, that, having made the selection, he followed with assiduity and success the steps prescribed as qualifications for the calling, and throughout life discharged its duties with sedu lous care and scrupulous attention. As a divine, however, he is much less known than as a brilliant writer, and no mean political champion. Shortly after being ordained, he got the appointment to a small curacy in a village situated in the midst of Salisbury Plain, which he retained for two years, when he was induced to give it up, in order to accompany the squire's son, to whom he was appointed tutor at a liberal salary, to the university of Weimar, for which place he set out with his pupil, in 1797. Germany, - •however, about this period, became disturbed, and the destination of both was changed. As he himself says, " We set out, but before reaching our desti nation, Germany was disturbed by war, and, in stress of politics, we put into Edinburgh, where I remained for five years." Shortly after his advent to the Scottish metropolis, he became acquainted with a knot of remarkable men, at the time, like himself, obscure, but destined ere long to occupy prominent positions in the world of literature and politics. Con spicuous among those young men with whom he then associated were Sir Walter Scott, Henry (now Lord) Brougham, Sir James Macintosh, Francis Jeffrey, Professor Playfair, Horner, and a host of others, whose names have since become familiar in our country's annals. Connected with those parties, with the exception of Scott, the critical and political young divine originated the Edinburgh Review, of which Smith is said to have been the originator, and was certainly the first editor. While in Edinburgh, in addition to his other avocations, Smith attended the medical classes of the University, and in that study made considerable proficiency ; the knowledge which he there acquired he subsequently turned to valuable account in attending to the ailments and physical improvement of his parishioners. In that city he likewise gave lectures on different subjects, and among these was one from which the following is an extract, on MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT. It was lucky (says his daughter, Lady Holland) that Miss Pybus had some fortune, for my father's only contribution towards their future menage (save his own talents and cha racter) were six small silver teaspoons, which, from much wear, had become the ghosts of their former selves. One day, in the madness of his joy, he came running into the room and flung these into her lap, saying, ` There, Kate, you lucky girl, I give you all my fortune.' Notwithstanding the levity which such a proceed ing might seem to indicate, Sydney Smith was a man of great worldly prudence, sensitively alive to the necessity of avoiding debt as the only means of secur ing independence, and indefatigable in his labours to avoid incurring pecuniary obligation of any kind. Successful though he was in aiding the progress of Whig opinions, he seems to, have met with, comparatively, but little encouragement from the magnate professors of that political creed, and preferment in the Church came but tardily to assist him in the means of providing for the wants of his household. At length, in 1828, promotion came, but through no Whig channel did its welcome tide flow towards the portals of the reverend gentle man. Lord Lyndhurst conferred on him, then in his fifty-seventh year, a prebendal stall in the cathedral at Bristol, and also a living in that city, which in duced him to take up his residence at Combe Florey, near Taunton, and here he appears to have passed two or three of• the happiest years of his life. His habits may be, in a great degree, gathered from the following admirable sketch of THE MODE OF LIFE AT COMBE FLORET. I long to give some sketch of these breakfasts, and the mode of life at Combe Florey, where there were often assem bled guests that would have made any table agreeable any where ; but it would be difficult to convey any adequate idea of the beauty, gaiety, and happiness of the scene in which they took place, or the charm that he infused into the society assembled round his breakfast-table. The room, an oblong, was, as I have already described, surrounded on three sides by books, and ended in a bay-window opening into the garden : not brown, dark, dull-looking volumes, but all in the brightest bindings ; for he carried his system of furnishing for gaiety even to the dress of his books. He would come down into this long, low room in the morning like a " giant refreshed to run his course," bright and happy as the scene around him. " Thank God for Combe Florey !" he would exclaim, throwing himself into his red arm-chair, and looking round; "I feel like a bridegroom in the honeymoon." And in truth I doubt if ever bridegroom felt so joyous, or at least,made others feel so joyous, as he did on these occasions. " Ring the bell, Saba ; ' the usual refrain, by the bye, in every pause, for he contrived to keep everybody actively employed around him, and nobody ever objected to be so employed. " Ring the hell, Saba." Enter the servant, D—. D—, glorify the room." This meant that the three Venetian windows of the bay were to be flung open, displaying the garden on every side, and letting in a blaze of sunshine and flowers. D— glorifies the room with the utmost gravity and departs. " You would not believe it," he said, "to look at him now, but D— is a reformed Quaker. Yes, he quaked, or did quake ; his brother quakes still : but D— is now thoroughly orthodox. I should not like to be a Dissenter in his way ; he is to be one of my vergers at St. Paul's some day. Lady B— calls them my virgins." She asked me the other day, " Pray, Mr. Smith is it true that you walk down St. Paul's with three virgins hold ing silver pokers before you ?" I shook my head, and looked very grave, and bid her come and see. Some enemy of the Church, some Dissenter, had clearly been misleading her.—" There now," sitting down at the breakfast-table, " take a lesson of economy. ifSYou never breakfasted in a parsonage before, did • you'f - There, you see, my china is all white, scr if broken can always be renewed; the same with my plates at dinner : did you observe my plates ? every one a different pattern, some of them sweet articles; it was a pleasure to dine upon such a plate as I had last night. It is true, Mrs. Sydney, who is a great herald, is shocked be cause *some of them have the arms of a royal duke or a knight of the garter on them, but' that does not signify to me. My plan is to go into a china-shop and bid them show me every' plate they have which does not cost more than half-a-crown ; you see the result. I think breakfasts so pleasant because no one is conceited before one o'clock." Mrs. Marcet admired his ham. "Oh," paid he, " our hams are the only true hams ; yours are Shems and Japhets." Some one, speaking of the character and writings of Mr. : "Yes, I have the greatest possible respect for him ; but from his feeble voice, he always reminds me of a liberal blue-bottle fly. He gets his head down and his hand on your button, and pours into you an un interrupted stream of Whiggism in a low buzz, I have known him intimately, and conversed etr, last thirty years, and give him oval' mind, and a general love of public v 1 that during that period I have neve/ he has uttered." With all his seeming frivolik eminently practical in his. view advice and observations, a/th( quently, indeed generally, smart ness, bordering on the abszad• following hint on FEMALE SDIICA Never teach false morality. HOW girls that beauty is of no value, dress value; her whole prospects and 1 1, depend upon a new gown or a becoi has five grains of common sense sh, great thing is to teach her their must be something better under the for real happiness. But never sacri , Of his merits or demerits ability as a controversialist, W stained from speaking ; we oriel anything in reference to his pi; if not on all of these points, Nvt at variance with those which lit In contemplating his life and exhibited in the volumes limb from the perusal of which man: fitably charmed away, we havf with the common-sense pracl which he viewed the every-day these he persisted in looking at could be made visible at all , preparing for an encounter with by which the path is beset, ant- A the grim giant by whom proge'" barred, he avoided the touch ' the blows of the other, only Nt became unavoidable. What reach he relished and enjoyed; flict with adversity, he semi by the best disposition of the his reach ; and endeavoured to well as to achieve the victor temper, and a chivalrous spirit to better things. The New Quarterly Review, Hookham and This very cleverly-conducted usual, with a smart yet lucid ref ture of the past quarter. It spirit, and is in general chars' and fairness. Following the good analytical reviews of the F 1 portance which have issued fro" currency of the period treated terly Review is a useful instrinnt between the literary world all' making the latter familiar with mer, of which it conveys an thti ture, drawn with skill and Nil, general with a warm and friend contains a well-written resume ture, in France and Germany, a complete index raisonnie to ti keeping its readers fully au c om all civilized lands. The Martins of Cro- Martin. London : Chapman In the three numbers of before us, we have a mass of sti ding a duel, in the handling of Lever is altogether unrivalled. the interest of romance withoul ing the' characteristic delirieati and, in this instance, the mat te ' farther th an the p r eliminary all w rencontre being prevented by local authorities ; and what thrL shed, if not absolute murder , some rather agreeable incid ent of character and concoction of author of the " Dodd FainilY peers, and in this, as in most. o _ 4 i n ch I" in a profusion of them, w o aiga 'and, would amount to reckless Pr.,,austib the 0; case, the fountain appears inel"' lo ers. p h freely upon.its gratifying ` va t , 4 , 0 gee° c oe ber, we are introduced to It a as th e female Admirable Crichton, pfif tIY 190 11 , 1 ,01 it for oy irtue; b o n bend ;' clueY ty, P . 2 I A co s 4 1,e , 0 0,,yki IOUFII ''' 01 1 ' , i ce d ,! ctl) P 101 4 As 9 AT ioff• visit e v s e 2OO o . B o . lif e i .1! lasPPinest)os ol uinm t . 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