New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-03-08

fks tches-tbey grew out OF them-but the generd
bestmepi was broader and deeper. The rolliekng
saeasm Of the earlier sketches disappeared and they
eoold hardly be legrimately called saiires. Tbsck
o. sy sat rust for drawing Becky Sharpe
t5sn Skak speare was for drawing tago. That there
were no ~ rfect persons in the world did not make
satire. Mr. Curtis did not ak whether there were
perfect persons in the world; he asked If this one
aspect Of the world were true. For novel had mta-
tiODs and could only deal with certain Character N
certain relations. Tuth-telling was not necessary
satire. Fielding not saiirical when be described
Parson Adams saying of Vanity, VANITY, SIT DE,
spise It. my best sermon is upon Vanity, sr Ana
Tiackeray's novels were strictly paporauas OF lie;
Ike Gil Bias, Roderick Random, Don QuiHote and
Nicholas kickleby. Il have no head sDOvo my
eyes" Tbackeray had once sald to mend OF Mr.;
Curtis; but be lad a heart below his eyes, ana
,rov we seem 10 be in contact with life. Characters
and events strike us a. they do in the world and We
have that serious and intimate interest in them 10
know Ethel NewcOme Id TO know lovely, humane
girl and not heroine with spanged wings folded
under her baby waist, but being who no more m
tended for an ideal than cousins Griseda and IL
tsua Cousin Griseda good grl, fun OF honesty
and sweetness and intelligence; and yet II ka'selas,
Prince Of Abyssinia, young, handsome and noble,
should hight from his paldIquin and offer his bean
full Of love and his hand full Of diamonds aud Opas
and rubies be did not say that she would take them,
but be thought that even Cousin Grselda might won
der whether esteem for Rssseas would not do for love-
considering all things and he thought her parents rot
being at al hesrtess people might advise their dau2h-
ter think seriously before che said that esteem
would not do for love- while if there only Rasselas
ard nothing but bis heart in his hand the same parents
might say, MY dear GrlZZel woman should
"co more than esteem her husband-she should love
"bimh And in country where there was no P7nce
Rasselas but only rich Old Bottom the weaver, If
lovely little Titania were educated in a society whose
real principle love Of wealth and sOclal POSITION
and heard the principle inculcated IN hundred ways,
and WIS hcnIned in and entangled on every hand by
lis subtle sOpbistrs Cousin Tania although SEEING
a,G, andc cali name
might vet Weld to that fate, marry Old Bottom after
al and try to forget bis ears. We all understood
this perfectly. We all knew how nsdious the snare
was II was this story of actual general life, which
Jbsckeray told. The story moved on, with no ma
cLinery or clap-trap, but like life. If we smiled
II was quite unawares. If we wept the tears
OOzed from eyes a. they did when we sat IN the
parOr and saw the young people dancing merry about
the roOm-Grselds with Rasselas Romeo with juliet,
Titania with Bottom. 1t was because we saw part
ner which they did not see; 1t was because we saw
them moving down the dance with lime and as they
whrled Time breathed upon the uster OF bis partners
hair Tine touched the in his partners cheek;
Time dmmed the light in bis partner eye and the
music that gay DIED aw9y as you listened
died from dance into dnge. To write novel was
TO COPY life 70 as to have the moral in the picture
we have il in fact. Fielding, and SmOett and Ger
yaItes emVtied the streets into their books. 1hacke
fays novels went very much into the details OF life
but then life wac mace up OF TRIVIAL detan'' Pen1en-
MS ara Henry Esmond. and Give Newc0me, were no
more busy with details than every man was. The
books were 50 steiny real that when we saw the er-
or and sins Of the characters recognized our own,
and we bated TO have those things which ought to
correct in ourselves held up to in literature.
SOme people objected TO lhacke1ay, and demanded
pictures Of the ideal to show to what we might at
tain. But The 1dealists bad always had 1t their own
way in literature. Virtue had been triumphant
I'll Tie way down from Pamela TO the Lampighter-
Virtue drawn through key-hole and coming out
larger upon the other aide. Novelsts had para
lied whole battalons Of ideal men aod women.
Even Dickens had given us CHEEKY bes and Lit
tie Nels and Paul DOmbeys. But what was gained
by III II we were sick, let US know it, and not get
oblivion from champagne. Nature was wicked
wac. In life found philosophers GROWING over the
underdone chops, and poets caught in the rain.
Women who were Oveest and truest were not always
doing angelic deeds. They sometimes took medicine
and scolded the cook. Even Jeanne Deans had to eat
her dinner and naturally Byron, who was one OF the
so.caed dealists said that he could not bear to
woman eat But the great artist was he who was not
afraid Of the fact and in whose hands Jeanne Deans
did not cease to be being Of beautiful moral herOsm
because she was subject to human necessity: This
was emphaticaly true of Thackeray. Major Dobbm
was man who made us all prouder of being men, al
though he had large feet and could not bow gracefully
Tbackeray was accused of always making herOsm
ridiculous, by allyng it with little defect; but if
reader could so entirely escape catching the tone OF
these novels as to suppose that Dobbn was made 70
tumble over a sofa that his goodness might be made
mdCrOus instead of seeing that It was to make the
goodness real by making the good man human, that
reader could no more catch the anng of life than he
did of the story If Thackeray inclined to draw the
Iago in life rather than the Prince Prettynan was
because he hated Iago, and knew there was no charm
against him so true as his faithful portrait. Hence
came the melancholy moral. The eyes OF many
noble woman filed she read. II was too true. She
could not finish the story. The heart OF many man
ecbed a. he shut the book and he went down to his
desk or the drawing. room little sadder and good
deal wiser For as be read page by page, and para
graph by paragraph the tragic story, he whispered to
his own heart alt is bad; it is bad but the worst Is
that il is true" Mr. Curtis knew the fans and founces
would make stand upon Thackerays women, but he
was sure that n moments consideration would correct
this MISREPRESENTATION Thackeray became first famous
by Lis portrait of Betsy Sharpe, and his readers forgot
10 survey the Whole range Of his female creation. No
women in English fiction were more real than his.
Becky Sharpe not their type; the mother OF PEN
dennis, though she had the weak tenderness of
mother the patient Laura, although she seemed com
mon.place because virtue was not pquant; old, beau
tful, high-bred Nine. de Florac, with her lifelong
martyrdom of the heart; vigorous, homely and hearty
Mrs. O'Dowd; young, susceptible, proud Ethel, with
her pure instincts and really lovely nature thinking
right and doing wrong; these were women who, for
naturaness and exquisite details OF portrature and for
those qualities which were most wonanly, were not
surpassed in the whole range of English fiction Thack
cray loved the excess Of what was most womanly III
woman better than the least swervng the other way;
consequently be very much overprased Fieldng's
Amelia. He did not require great genius and brilliant
talent in his heroines. lie codly commended Portia
while he loved and worshippcd Juliet and Desdemona.
Still he had the profoundest for that nobeSt
type. Erminia was a direct and Becky Sharpe an in
direct homage to what was abstractly most excellent
in woman. No man who had not sensitive ad-
hesion to everything essentially lovely in fe-
male character could have portrayed Becky
Sharpe. Mr.. Curtis confounded at that theory
Of Thackery which made HIM Jeerer
at human fralty. For, however well, bred we might
be- we were not quite saints and, whether innately
depraved or not, Satan must have great satisfaction
in contemplating human society. And if Pendennis
and The Newcomes made one sigh over men and