The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-02-15
Sidney Smith.

Sidney Smiths conversation was
the conversation of a mai man with
spirits; of q man, to use his own ex
preston, who must either talk, laugh
or burst ; the conversation of a man
whose intellect bred analogies and pic
turesque imagery as the sun breeds
clouds. Take him when OIL where /
you might. you never took him by
surprise; and most Of the brightest IL
Illustrations of his wit, like Douglass
Jerold's, were those that he struck out
off the spur of the moment. His re-
ply to the Archbishop OF York;
hear, Mr.. Smith, you do no: approve
of much riding for the clergy
"Why, my lord, perhaps there is not
much objection, provided they do not
ride too well, and stick out their toes
Observation-Disclosures very keen for
Sidney Smith could never sit a horse,
and his diocesan was one of the finest
horsemen in a province where every
boy is born in the saddle, and rides by
instinct. There was q touch of the
courtier rs well as of the wit in his
reply to the lady who, arguing in
large party that it was always high
tide at London bridge at II o'clock,
appealed to him, "Now, Mr. Smith,
is it not SO Pr 'It used not to be
30, I believe, formerly, but perhaps
the Lord Mayor and Alderman have
altered it lately" He traced out the
~analogies of things with marvellous
quickness. A mar at his side reckons
the amount of his ground tent at E5
a feet. "Ah, the price of a London
footman six foot high, thirty guineas a
year." Upon a couple of takers,
There is the same difference between
their tongues as between the hour and
the minute hand j.: one goes ten times
as fast, and the other signifies ten
times as much" "If you masthead a
sailor for not doing his duty, why
should you not weathercock a parish
Toner for refusing to pay tithes /" Of a
New Zealand attorney-"There is a
New Zealand attorney, just arrived in
London, with IS, Sd. tattooed all over
his face ;" and of illusions-"We nat
urally loseSallusions as we get older,
like teeth, but there is no Cartright
to fit a new set into our understand
ings. / have, also, only one illusion
left, and that is the Archbishop Of
Canterbury" Combining a vivid i'm
! agination with this brilliant gift of
hitting upon analogies, with these
high spirits, and this remarkable flu
ency of-expression, Sydney Smith was
as a talker irresistible; and except
Macoulay, he generally talked every
guest at a table into silence. His
habit was, as lie said, to fire right
across the tal.le, and to talk upon any
subject that happened to be started,
rarely starting anything of his OWE
Byron calls him, in Don Juan.
1.-THE loudest wit 1 e'er was deafened with;''
and hat is the general testimony.
His intellect was like an electric
coil; you touched it and it flushed out
in sparkling corruscations at the touch.
The conversation at one of Rogers
Breakfasts turns upon American birds.
"My dear Rogers" says Smith, 'if we
were both in America, We should be
tarred and feathered and, lovely as
we are by nature, l should be an os.
trieh and you an emu" Sir Charles
Lyelps book is brought on the carpet,
and people wonder what sort of a
spectacle our era will present to the
Sir Charles Lyell of the next geology.
cal epoch. "Yes, imagine an excava-
ton on the site of st. Paurs fancy q
lecture, by the Owen of some future
age, ON the thigh-bone of a Minor
Canon, or the tooth of a Dean-the
form, qualities, knowledge, tastes, pro.
pensities, he would discover from
them"
Of art and polish, as art and polish
were understood by Macaulay, you
find no traces in Sydney Smith. His
daughter calls him q sort of rough
rider of subjects ; and the phrase il
an apt one. He never troubled him
self with the metaphysics of a ques
ton ; he never troubled himself will
its trivialities. Taking up only those
topics of talk that were of the direct
est personal interest; those topics tina
! were under discussion in the House o
Commons, in Cathedral chapters anC
at every dinner table, Sydney Smitl
! selected their most telling points anc
then sat down to work these up witt
his own vigorous understanding, from
r what I may call the common sens
point of view. And his style is, il
its way, perfect. 1t is the exact mir
5 TOR of this thought. He wrote as b
; talked ; wrote, that is, with the dasl
of a man of keen wit and of high il
telligence. rarely revised his manu-.
D script, and left most of his contribu
tons to the Edinburgh Revie,O, t
chance and jeffrey Gsnheman's Mas
azine.