The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-08-07
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sydney Smith.

s sydney smith.
I Sydney Smiths conversation was
the conversation Of n man mad with
spirits of man, to use his own ex-
preston, who must either talk, laugh
or burst the conversation Of man
,, whose intellect bred analogies and
: picturesque imagery as the sun breeds
clouds. Take HIM when or where
, |, you might, you never took him by
surprise; and most of the brightest
illustrations of his wit, like Douglass
Jerold's were those that he struck out
on the spur of the moment. His re-
ply to the Archbishop of York;
hear, Mr.. Smith, you do not approve
of much riding for the clergy"
'Wby, my lord; perhaps there is not
much objection. provided they do not
ride too well, and stick out their toes
tprofessionally"-was very keen; for
Sydney Smith could never sit horse,
and his diocesan was one Of the finest
horsemen in a province where every
boy was born in saddle, and rides
! by instinct. There was n touch Of the
courtier as well as Of the wit in his
reply to the lady who, arguing in a
large party that it was always high
tide at London Bridge at twelve
O'Clock, appealed to him with, Now
MIR. Smith, is it not so 2" ut used
not to be so, / believe, formerly, but
perhaps the Lord Mayor, and Alder
men have altered it lately" He
traced out the analogies Of things
with marvellous quickness. A man at
his side reckons the amount Of his
ground-rent at So a foot. "Ah, the
price of 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 one goes ten times as fast, and
| the other signifies ten times as much -
If you masthead sailor for not do
I ing his duty, why should you not
weathercOck parishioner for refus-
ing to pay tithes ?" OF a New Zeal |
and attorney-''Therc rs a New Zeal /
and attorney, just arrived in London,
with 6s Sd. tattooed all over his face,
and of illusions-"We naturally lose 1
illusions as we get older, like teeth,
but there is no Cartwright to fix a
new set into our understandings. |
have, alas, only one illusion left, and
that is the Archbishop of Canterbury
Combining a vivid Imagination with
this brilliant gift of hitting upon an
alogies, with these high spirits, and
this remarkable fuency ofexpression,
Sydney Smith was, as talker, ire
sistible; and except Macaulay, be
generally talked every guest at a
table into silence. His habit was, as
he said, to fire right across the table,
and to talk upon any subject that
happened to be started, rarely start
ing anything of his own. Byron
calls him, in Don Juan,
"The loudest wit eer was deafened vith.''
and that is the general testimony.
His intellect was like an electric
coil YOU touched it, and it flashed
out in sparkling corruscations at the
touch. The conversation at one of
Rogers breakfasts turns upon Ameri-
can birds "My dear Rogers" says
Smith, "if we were both in America,
we should be tarrcd and feathered
and, lovely as we are by nature,
should be an ostrich and YOU an emu
Sir Charles Lyell's book is brought
on the carpet, and people wonder
what sort of spectacle our era will
present to the Sir Charles Lyell of
the next geological epoch. "Ies, I,
imagine an excavation on the site of
st. Paul's: fancy a lecture, by the |,
Owen of some future age, on the
thigh bone of Minor Canon, or the
tooth of Dean-the form, qualities,
knowledge, tastes, propensities, he
would discover from them" h
OF art and polish, as art and polish
were understood by Macaulay, YOU
find no traces in Sydney Smith. His
daughter calls him sort of rough ,
rider of subjects and the phrase is an ,
apt one He never troubled himself ,
with the metaphysics of question ,
he never troubled himself with its ,
trivialities. Taking up only those ]
topics of talk that were of the dir ,
cctest personal interest; those topics /
that were under discussion in the {
House of Commons, in Cathedral
chapters and at every dinner table, '
Sydney Smith selected their most ,
telling points and then sat down to q
work these up with his own vigorous :
understanding, from what may call
the common sense point of view. d
And his style is, in its way, perfect. .
II is the exact mirror Of his thought Z
He wrote as he talked: wrote, that is,
with the dash of man of keen wit
and of high intelligence, rarely re- a
vised his manuscript, and left most of r
his contributions to the EdinbTgh =
Reuie,os, to chance and Jeffrey !.
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