Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-01-03

than perceive it. And it is very remarkable
that though but little seen or heard, vet the
whole play seems full of her. All that she ut
ters is forty three lines in Act l., twenty-four
in the fourth, and thirty-seven in the seventh
scene of Act w., and five in Act V.
1t is In this remoteness, we take it, this gift
OF presence without appearance, that the secret
at her power mainly consists Her character
has no foreground nothing outstanding, or
that touches us in definable way She is all
Observation-Disclosures. So that she comes
to us rather by inspiration than by vision.-
Even when before US, we rather feel than see
her so much more is meant than meets the
eye,' that what is shown is in a manner lost
sight Of in what is suggested. Thus she affects
US through deeper and finer susceptbilities than
consciousness can grasp, and if she at once used
and developed in us higher organs of communi-
cation than sense or as if her presence acted
in same mysterious way on our very life; SO
that when it works in US most, we perceive it
least.
"Thus, what was stated before, respecting
her affection, it is true of her character general
ly. For she has the same deep, quiet reserve
of thought as of feeling SO that her mind be-
comes cons spicuous by its retiringness, and wins
the attention by shrinking from it. Though she
nowhere says anything indicating much intelli-
gence, yet she always strikes US, somehow, as
very intelligent, and even the more SO that her
intelligence does not appear. And, indeed,
what she knows is so bound up with her affec-
tions, that she cannot draw it off into expression
by itself; it is held in perfect solution, as it
were, with all the other elements of her nature,
and nowhere falls down in sediment, so as to
be producible in separate state. She has a
deeper and truer knowledge of her sisters than
any one else about them; but she knows them
rather by heart than by head, and so can feel
and act, but not articulate prophecy of what
they will do. Ask her, indeed, what she thinks
on any subject, and she will answer that she
thinks-nay, she cannot tell, she can only show
what she thinks: for her thinking involuntarily
shapes itself into life, not into speech and she
uses the proper language of her mind, when
over child changed father she invokes restora-
tion to hung bis medicine on her lips, or, ,kneel-
ing beside him, entreats him to hold his hands
in benediction Ger her.
"All which shows q peculiar fitness in Corde-
lia for the part she was designed to act which
was to exemplify the workings of flial piety, as
Lear exemplifes those of paternal love. To en-
body this sentiment, the whole character, in al
its movements and aspects, is made essentially
religious. For tilial piety is religion acting un
der the most sacred relations Of human life
And religion we know or ought to know, is
life and not a language; and life is the stimuli
taneous and concurrent action of all the ele
ments of our being. Which is illustrated t.
perfection in Cordelia; who, be it observed ,nev
er thinks of her piety at all, because her piet,
prompts her to think only Of her father. Ant
SO she can reveal her good thoughts only by veil
ing them in good deeds, as the spirit is veilet
and revealed in the body-nay, has to be Sc
yelled, in order to be revealed; for if the vel
be torn off, the spirit is no longer there.
Therefore it is, that Cordelia affects US 81
deeply and constantly, without our being able tt
perceive how or why. Hence also the impres
sion of reserve that runs through her character
for where tho whole moves equally and at once
the parts are not distinctly, and so seem held il
reserve. And she affects those about her in tn
same insensible way that she affects US that is
she keeps their thoughts and feelings busy, b,
keeping what she thinks and feels hidden be
meath what she does an influence goes fortl
from her by stealth, and stealthily creeps int
them-an influence which does not appear, an
yet is irresistible and is therefore irresistible be
cause it does not appear; and which become
an undercurrent in their minds crculates i
their blood, as it were, and enriches their Lii
with beauty which seems their own: so tina
she steals upon us through them; and we thin
of her the more, because they, without suspect
ing it, remind US of her.
Accordingly her father loves her most, ye
knows not why; has no assignab]e reasons fc
his feeling, and therefore cannot keep it dowr
Having cast her off from his bounty, but nc
out of his heart he grows full of unrest, as
there was some secret power about her which /
cannot be without, though he did not dream
its existence while she was with him. An
since her going to France, the fool has muc
pined away not as though her presence WI
necessary to his health SO that he sckens upo
the loss of her, yet he suspects not wherefor
and knows but that she was by, and his spiri
were nimble she is gone, and his spirits al
dropping.
"Such is the influence of right-mnded ar
right-mannered woman on those about her
she does not know it, they do not know it h
influence is all the better and stronger th
neither Of them know it; ; she begins to lose
when she goes about to use it and make the
sensible of it with noiseless steps it glides in
s them, unnoticed and unsupported, disturbs al
l repels them as soon as it seeks to make itst
: heard. For, indeed, her power lies not
: what she values herself upon, and voluntari
: brings forward, and makes use of, but in som
Q thing far deeper and diviner than all this, whi
Q she knows not of and cannot help
$ "Finaily, we know of nothing with which
a compare Cordelia, nothing to illustrate h
s character by. An impersonation ofth holine
It of womanhood, herself alone is her own para
+ lei and all the objects that lend beauty wh
+ used to illustrate other things, seem dumb
: ineloqucnt of meaning beside her Superio
:, perhaps to all the rest of Shakspeare's wont
n in beauty of Oharachter, she is neverthele
! inferior to none of them as living and breat