The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-23 00:00:00

LITERARY EXTRACTS.

SYDNEY SMITH was an after-dinner writer. His
words have a flow, a vigour, an expression which is
not given to hungry mortals: You seem to read of
good cheer, of beaming and buoyant enjoyment.
There is little trace of labour in his composition ; it is
poured forth like an unceasing torrent, rejoicing daily
to run its course. And what courage there is in it !
There is as much variety of pluck in writing across a
sheet as in riding across a country. Cautious men
have many adverbs, " usually," " nearly," " almost ;"
safe men begin, "It may be advanced ;" you never
know precisely what their premises are, nor what their
conclusion is ; they go tremulously like a timid rider ;
they turn hither and thither ; they do not go straight
across a subject, like a masterly mind. A few sen-
tences are enough for a master of sentences. A prac-
tical topic wants rough vigour and strong exposition.
This is the writing of Sydney Smith. It is suited to
the broader kind of important questions. For any-
thing requiring fine nicety of speculation, long
elaborateness of deduction, evanescent sharpness of
distinction, neither his style nor his mind was fit.—
National Review.

ANECDOTE OF DR. LINGARD.—The buoyancy of his
mind, the playfulness of his wit, and the rich store of
anecdote for ever at his command, gave to him a
power over his companions which it was impossible to
withstand. Connected with this subject, a ludicrous
story is told among his friends. During the northern
assizes, several of the leaders of the bar, among whom
were Scarlett, Pollock, Brougham, and some others,
were frequently in the habit of going over from Lan-
caster to Hornby, on a Sunday or other vacant day, to
spend it with Lingard. As usual, one Sunday morning,
before mass, a party of them drove up to the house,
and informed the servant that they had intended to
dine with the doctor. In an agony of dismay she ran
to her master. The only leg of mutton which they
had in the house had just been cut in two ; and what
could be done in a country village, where nothing more
was to be procured ? Lingard was not disturbed.
" Sew the two pieces together," said he, " and roast
them as one, and I will take care that it is not dis-
covered." She did so. The joint, just repaired, was
served up ; and so entertained were the guests by his
conversation, that the expedient passed off unobserved.
—Biographical Sketch in the new edition of Lin-
gard' s History of En land.
THE POWER OF EXTEMPORANEOUS ORATOR Y.—
The performances of the Italian improvisatori, or
makers of poetry off-hand upon any present subject,
and in almost any kind of stanza, are generally
cited as the most surprising efforts of this kind. But
the power of extempore speaking is not less singular,
though more frequently displayed, at least in this
country. A practised orator will declaim in measured
and in various periods—will weave his discourse into
one texture; form parenthesis within parenthesis ;
excite the passions, or move to laughter ; take a turn
in- his discourse from an accidental interruption,
making it the topic of his rhetoric for five minutes to
come, and pursuing in like manner the new illustra-
tions to which it gives rise ; mould his diction with a
view to attain -or to shun an epigrammatic point, or
an alliteration, or a discord ; and all this with so
much assured reliance on his own powers, and with
such perfect ease to himself, that he shall even plan
the next sentence while he is pronouncing off-hand
the one he is engaged with, adapting each to the
other, and shall look forward to the topic which is to
follow and fit in the close of the one he is
handling, to be its introducer ; nor shall the auditor
be able to discover the least difference between all this
and the portion of his speech which he has got by
heart, or tell the transition from the one to the other.
—Lord Brougham.
THUNDER WITHOUT LIGHTNING.—The phenome-
non of lightning without thunder, with a perfectly
clear sky, is too well known, and rests on too general
experience, for it to be necessary for me to cite on this
point the testimony of any particular meteorologist.
Who, indeed, in our climates has not seen and re-
marked "heat-lightnings ?" Bergman tells us that
in Sweden, where they are also very common, the
peasants call them "barley-lightnings" (korn-bleck),
because they are usually seen in August, when the
barley is beginning to ripen. It is by mistake that it
has been asserted that heat-lightnings always remain
near the horizon. Their light sometimes overspreads