The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Sir Owen Fairfax. By the Lady Emily Ponsonby.
Three Vols. Hurst and Blackett.
Lady Emily Ponsonby loves to give gentle coun-
sel intermingled with a pleasant story. The discip-
line of life is the favourite theme of her romances.
In the story of " Sir Owen Fairfax" she has taken
for the motto of her title-page the homely every-
day experience, " Man proposes, God disposes,"
and some sweet lines of Herbert's as an introduc-
tion afford the reader some intimation of the coming
shadows. The character of Sir Owen Fairfax is
certainly one to require more than the ordinary
discipline of life to tame its impetuosity and sub-
due its passions, and a heavy discipline isvouchsaied
to him. How he rebels and how he submits, how
he sins and suffers, we will leave to the authoress of
his history to relate. Sir Owen's is not an ordinary,
character, and his history is a most uncom-
mon one, and the ordinary reader (being of
course an ordinary character) is not likely to
derive much personal benefit from the interesting
contemplation of the ungovernable Owen. A lesson
of very general warning, however, may be gained
from a study of Owen's friends, with their over-
careful deliberations and kindly plots and plans for
his help and benefit. The vanity of human wishes
is here very forcibly and very truthfully exemplified.
A young reader of biography, the authoress tells us,
once naively exclaimed, " How much better people
would get on without friends !" The truth of this
remark, insomuch as it applies to .the officious in-
termeddling of good-natured advisers, is vividly
illustrated in the history of Sir Owen Fairfax and
his anxious mother and guardian, and her diplo-
matic counsellor and coadjutor, Mr. Duke. As
Owen inherits with the family name a large share of
the family failings, an errant nature and a deter-
mined will, his prudent guardians endeavour as
much as possible to keep him at home during his
minority ; and, above all, to guard him from any
communication with a reprobate uncle, the worst
Fairfax of them all. In the following scene the
first trial of strength threatens destruction to all
their plans and counter-plans :
Sir Owen was very like the ancestors of many genera-
tions whose pictures decorated the walls of the Castle, and
he was still more like his own father. His figure promised
to attain the same proportions, and his eyes, large and
dark with a troubled look, half fierce and half melancholy,
were the very eyes of Sir David ; the very eyes, judging
from their portraits,
of the whole Fairfax race, male and
female.

But, on the other hand, it needed but a glance to see that
his character was in many respects different. In Sir David
there had been, and there was in almost all the portraits,
a hard stubborn look which was wanting in Owen. The
general expression of his countenance was gentle ; his
mouth was his mother's mouth, soft, timid, and flexible,
had it not been that his countenance varied considerably
under different circumstances, it might almost have been
said it was too gentle.
At this moment it was animated and expectant; not too
gentle, yet sweet and bright. " Well, mother, what do
you say ?" he cried, watching her impatiently before she
put the letter down.
" My dearest boy," she replied slowly, " what can I say ?
I grieve to refuse, but I must do so."
"Refuse ! Oh, mother, impossible ! I was so pleased.
It is such a good beginning ; I really hope I may at some
time do my poor little cousin good."
" I hope so. lam sure I hope so, my dear boy ; but in
doing good to others we must not forget ourselves. Oh !
Owen, rememberA you had a warning too."
"You do not think I could forgot !" he cried reproach-
fully, "but this is not going for pleasure. It is to do good
and oh ! mother, 1 teas to do good if I could."
" I dare not, I dare not," she said tremulously.
Owen looked at her with surprise and annoyance. lie
knitted his broad black brows, and a troubled, fierce ex-
pression gradually crept from the eyes over tis whole
countenance.
Lady Fairfax covered her eyes with her hands. 'So
like, so like," she felt, and she shivered.
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