The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE•

THE T, ICAR OF IVREA!'"

Br MRS. TROLLOPE.
In 3 Vol,. Richard Bentley, London, 1837'
The Rev. William Jacob Cartwright,
this caustic exposure of the hypocricv, fanatictsm,
' • Evens
licals, pretensions to sanctity, of modern .
Dr. Cal".
licals, is no other than our old acquaintance
well, the " TartufFe." of Moliere. We can also recog-
nise in several of the parishioners of Wrexhill,
individuals whose names only will be new to such readers
as as are familiar with Cibher's comedy of the
•
juror. But though a careful perusal of this novel has
convinced us o!' the absence of originality in the plot,
and characters, the incidents are of a nature to arrest
and sustain the liveliest attention. The followhig is
brief outline of the story :
The Rev. Mr. Cartwright, an Evangelical elerq:
man of the Church of England, is appointed to
ii
vicarage of Wrexhill, a few days before the death or i a
Mr. Mowbray, one of the largest landed proprietors
,
among the Squirearchy of England. This gentleman s
death is occasioned by a fit of apoplexy, brought en:
as the reader is left to infer, by indulging ratherfreely in the festivities commemorative of his only 500
coming of age. The Mowbray family, after his death'
consist of Mrs. Mowbray, her son, two daughteo't
and a Miss Torrington, an Irish heiress. The first
visit of Mr. Cartwright to this family is one of conoei
lence, in which he contrives to impress the widow an..
her youngest daughter with an idea of his extraorTe
nary sanctity. Ile is equally successful with half the
ladies in his parish, and though himself a widower,' al
the father of a son and daughter,, both of mature years;
lie is not six weeks in possession of the vicarage befc'r
.
he succeeds in turning the heads of half his fair Psd
rishioners. Frills and ruffles and curls are doffed; al
Misses in their teens betake themselves to Writing tracts
is
about the conversion of naughty little boys and gir'S
changed from their evil courses by presents of got..
advie-, and nice new clothes. But it is against tl'
hearts of the widow Mrowbray and her youngest
daughter that the pious Vicar mainly directs his El,6°:
gelical artillery. Need we say that he succeeds----tn9l
he marries the widow, to whom her late husband had
left all his property—that he flings young I\l°".b,l3oY
pennilesss on the world, and immures his sisters wit'il
the walls of their father's mansion—that he tyren,ilest,
over his wife, whom he never allows to quit his al 5
lest she should alter her will, in whichshe
appointed him sole heir—and that at last the will is
proved valueless, and the villain completely unmask° al
We believe not. Such a train of events is too oiturot
and obvious. But in their progressive develorne
there is much from which
.every sensitive and delicar.
mind will shrink with a feeling amounting to h°rwr°,l
The lascivious propensities of the vicar ; the
atheism of his daughter, who hates him with all " Ile
malevolence of an incarnate fiend ; the allot'
weakness of Mrs. Mowbray, and the grovelling fanair;
ticism of her youngest daughter, are pourtraYed
colours from the inspection of which the mind shrinks
with strong aversion. This opinion may he CO
sidered harsh, but we believe it to be impartial. f
are as much opposed on principle to the practices °
the Evangelicals as Mrs. Trollope herself--we iab°t;
minate as a disgusting mockery, calculated Only
make hypocrites, the traffic in tracts, ernd the miscalled
religious fancy-fair exhibitions—a:ld moreover we hie
strict adherents to the doctrine of ati unchang,es
ot
form of public worship. Nevertheless we d° Poi
think that we would be just;fied in imagining scenes
of
intermingled blasphemy rand impurity as descriptive
the observances of all who thought differently ficifinti-a
upon these subjects. Mrs. Trollope's abuse (//;-
Whigs--her coarse caricature of a familiar ers
tA
from a member of the Cabinet to a reverend school.
fellow on the subject of church patronage— we on n°.,
only tolerate but laugh at. She avows' herself
stanch Tory, and the Liberals, as a politie4l body, 9r6,
therefore fair game. But we question the rectitude
Lei
assuming an equal latitude is the abuse of any b°l
of Christians who profess to square their lives by t 1
moral precepts laid down in the rdrospel. What tug
t
our readers of the following 'extract, which we VI
as a sample of what we deem objectionable in I'le
pages of a fashionable m-Jyel
" There was a momes pause, during which a look vibliys
exchanged between the father and daughter unseen. red
Fanny ; but had it met her eye, it would only have elsPe-(I-
-to her as a mystery that she was incapable of comprehen
ing. Had Rosalind caught a sight of it, she might Pearb:Pd,
have fancied that the glance of the father spoke ontr„-gill•
ter accompaniedbetrayed by
disgustdi refualntdh r
bittereste a teti in,
fear.
ihiitstieexktiezmninofraarrysitpedra,
" Mr. Cartwright began, almost in a whisper, to otter
contempt,owffheri leedt l
ha that
mir ingled
odaa:f
fur
heartser. Itth,fiarsntoinvoked a blessing on to
the Lord, and then proceeded to ask, in
exemption from all dangers likely to beset tray. llers by one
for ".our beloved sister in the Lord W-ho. is this def
forth.' In a tone somewhat more loud, he •nt gins'to 01
plore especial grace for the not yet awakenedl%es"inof ful
flowing d
child she led with her ; and then, his rich and pa to
beeifoinreg,hlmnd
ceiling,
resounding through the room, his eyes raise", d° out
hehis
b claspedburst
int o aannarant'
eecxstteansydeodf
enthusiastichands st. ret co e
in which he besought blessings on the head of Fa‘a. enl. Cart-
" It is impossible to repeat such language as Mr'their
Wright and those wl,o resemble him think fit to use ensi-
extemporary devotions, without offendine• against that
to bit
tive horror of profanation which happily 'still continues . not
one of the strongest feelings in the minds of Christinn- or
converted—i. c., perverted from the solemn reveren,ceh 0,8
Church enjoins in the utterance of every word by whleigbea
venture to approach the Deity. To such, the onvlt'o fel'
flippant use of those momentous words" LET US
lowed, as they often are, by turgid rantings, and care'
appeals to the most High God, in volumes of rap" o to
less wordiness, is perhaps the most offensive outreing ight
which their religious feelings can be exposed. O
almost be tempted to believe that the sectarians who,s
and
jesting the authorised forms in which the bishotr,
fathers of our Chuich have cautiously, revet:eutolY r
res
succinctly rehearsed the petitions which the Se_riPa
almost
might, I t ,•••
mit man to offer to his Creator ;----°neostnyisutwe..
be tempted to believe that these men havetml repetitio#:
stood the word of God, as to read
its irre'
Ipcaking. But this much speaking,' will:t a 11.5
an
ago' as the heathen do, for they 6HALL Ele:I for their natcli
verent accompaniments of familiar phraseo,ogy,(l,_lt bit
mination to those who have preserved their
at_ud as
within the sacred pale of our Established Chureihr,s
it is among such that I wish to f.ad rea( ene,clessof
avoid, as much as possible, offend:Ay them by unrvitig
repetitions of Mr. Cartwright 's. rhapsodies, presaery to the
so umeli of their substance as may be necessary
makingt of P°'r
making his character fully understood.
" While imploring heaven to soften the ire,,iobe, be
Fanny, who knelt weeping beside him like
.stc
rehearsed her talents and good qualities, earuco.l jairk'wess
that they might not be turned by the Prince t P
Lord!
into a snare.
the
lead her, as it has so often done others,
to
ff ctiOnS °'fl-er
" Let not her gift—her shining gift of I)l3.'sY' Th,en(o
pit of hell ! Let not the gentle and warm a
LI% with
heart cling to those that shall carry her s:n the
and to ••••-•„or,
own, down to the worm that dieth not,
fix thou her love upon those who will seek
that cannot be quenched ! Rather, 0 Lord.:n,Bl;vholli
name. May she, 0 Lord! know to distinguy
"' Amen!' was here uttered by Henrietto., !Ile" psusio4,
the true and the false, the holy and the unholy.l;l. so lor.
a whisper that only her father's ear caught.. it.
for half a moment, and then centinaed, with,_,„ from
is
ing zeal, so that his voice shook o:ad teo t
for
emotiori she
eyes.
though she uncovered r•
was fully aware o
her own streamins pro f
_OO
" Fanny c all this strong eyes, c
could not mistake tt.e 'tremblin ea
g voice that i be,
its fervent blessie.,g, on her amidst sobs.
ted he"e
" Miss Torrington, who had sea_ that e
fore a boOk in her dressing-room, began to t.lll Itanes;
was not acting very kindly towards Farm'', th
was so nearly childish in her manners as to
c
rscr.
aos
tertaining company a very disagreeable task t ,
Kt the 111 she
" ' Poor little soul !' she exclaimed ; ' het"
_waiter,
sh,
of the father. and the crabbishness of the
(la so '
rescue',
1)
will be done to death if I . not to her tiea
closed her book add hastened to the libraryile door starred
" The sound she heard on approaching ! she sore
her, and she paused to listen a nienient dove