Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-11
Greatest Writer of Fiction. in these
Days, In the English Language-The
Problem Of the Future of the
JeWs-Are they to Return to
PaIestine2

Problem Of the Future of the
JeWs-Are they to Return to
PALESTINE!
New York World: Under the not very
satisfactory name of The Impressions Of
T'be0phraStuS Such, George Eliot has pub
lished what we are given to understand will
be her last contribution to literature. The
book resembles the characters" of the an
Gent author whose name she has chosen to
twist into its curious title as little as it resem
bles the kindred work of La Bruyere, but 1t
must be classed with both of them as a series
of carefully finished studies of the types OF
human nature developed under the pressure
of the circumstances amid which the writer
has lived, observed and thought. Of so des-
ultory a book no adequate idea can be
gwen otherwise than by extracts which shall
be complete In themselves, for, though the
volume is full OF keen and crystalline SEN
fences, there Is not one of its eighteen chap
tiers which is not In itself an essay carefully
modulated and thoroughly worked out upon
an independent theme. Taken as a whole,
the book reminds one at once of the best of
those lay sermons on moral and social texts
which were the glory OF the Saturday Re
UielO In the days when Cooke made the Sat
UfUUy heCtetC Il pOWSTJ anu Vi TIC pest WOIh
of Sir Arthur Helps. To say this may seem
but faint praise to the sect of the Eliotites, a
sect neither small nor shy IN singing hymns
to its divinity on either side of the Atlantic.
But there are large congregations of outer
barbarans IN literature who will be very
thankful to take George Eliot's views and re-
views of men and manners without George
Eliot's narrative, and such as these may find
this book of hers a more delightful seaside
companion in the summer weather than
Daniel DerondG. During the last years of
Mr. LeWes's life the home of George Eliot
came to be in its way London salon, organ
lied under conditions not unlike those under
which the most memorable salons of the
eighteenth century In Paris were constituted,
and it is obvious that the impressions of The
OpkraStHs Such are for the most part studies
from life. 1t would not be difficult, indeed,
to catalogue by name some of these dettly-cut
and skillfully- grouped sIlhouettes, were 1t at
all worth while, as it is not, to do so. What
could the true name of the exasperating Hin
re, for example, add to the permanent value
of this sketch of
TOO DETRIMENTAL MAN?
A little unprecedented insincerety must
be INDUCED under the stress of social inter
course. The talk even Of an honest man
must often represent merely his wish to be
inoffensive or agreeable rather than his
genuine opinion or feeling on the matter in
hand. His thought if uttered might be
wounding, or he has not the ability to utter
it with exactness, and snatches at loose
paraphrass; or he has really no genuine
thought on the question, and is driven to fill
up the vacancy by borrowing the remarks IN
vogue. These are the winds and currents
we have all to steer among, and they are
often too strong for our truthtuluess or our
wit. Let us not bear too hardly on each
other for this common incidental frallty or
yVQF tO I hE- lrdr mo
all considerateness and Difference.
But there are studIous, deliberate forms of
insincerity which it is fair to be impatient
with; HINES for example. From the name
you might suppose him to be German; IN
fact, his family Is Alsatlan, out has been set
tied IN England for more than one genera
ton. He is the superlatively deferential
man, and walks about with murmured won
der at the wisdom and discernment OF every
body who talks to him. He cult
waited the lowest tete-a-tete, keeping
his hat carefully in his hand and
downcast eyes, as If to relieve his feelings
under the pressure of the remarkable con-
Versation which it Is his honor to enjoy at the
present moment. | confess to some rage on
hearing him yesterday talking to Felicia, who
is certainly clever woman, and, without
unusual desire to show her ceverness. occa-
slonally says something of her own, or max
ing an aliusion which Is not quite common.
Still, it must happen to her as to every one
else to speak of many subjects on which the
best things were said long ago, and IN con-
versatlon with q person who mas been newly
introduced these well-worD themes naturally
recur as further development of salutations
and preliminary media of understanding,
such as pipes, chocolate, or mastic-chewing,
which serve to confirm the impression that
our new acquaintance is OF a civilized footing
and has enough regard for formulas to save
US from shocking outbursts of indiyiGualism,
to which we are always exposed with the
tamest bear or baboon. Considered purely
as a matter of information, 1t cannot any
longer be important for US TO learn that
British subject included IN the last census
holds Shakespeare to be supreme IN the pre-
sentation of character; still it is admissible
for any one to make this statement about
himself as to rub bis hands and tell
you that the air is brisk, If only he will let
it fall as q matter of course, with paren-
thetlc hghtDess, and not announce his adj
hesion to a commonplace with an emphatic
insistance, as if it were proof Of singular
insight. We mortals should chiefly like to
talk to each other out of GOODWILL and fell
lowship, not for the sake Of hearing revela-
tons or being stimulated by witticisms, and
| have usually found that it is rather the dull
person who appears to be disguised wi 4 mis-
contemporaries because they are not always
strlkingly original, and to satisfy whom the
party at a country house should have in
Guided the prophet Isaiah, Plato, Francis
Bacon and Voltaire. 1t is always your heav-
lest bore who is astonished at the tameness
OF modern celebrities, naturally; for a little
of his company mas reduced them to q state
of laccid fatigue. 1t is.right and meet that
there should be an abundant utterance of
good sound commonplaces. Part of an
agreeable takers charm Is that he lets them
fall continually with no more than their due
emphasis. Giving pleasant voice to what
We are all well assured of makes sort of
wholesome air for more special and dubious
remark to move In.
Or why seek an English patronyrnic for
this type, SO easily recognized in its Ameri-
can notifications Of
A POLITICAL MoLECULE?
He was a political molecule of the most
genttemanlIke appearance, not less than six
feet high, and showing the utmost nicely IN
the care Of his person and equipment. His
umbrella was especially remarkable for its
neatness, though perhaps he swung it unduly
in walking. His complexion was fresh, his
eyes small, bright and twinkliDg. He was
seen to great advantage In hat and great
| coat-garments frequently fatal to the i'm
presslveness Of shorter fgures-but when ne
was uncovered in the drawing-room it was
Impossible not to observe that his head
shelved off too rapidly from the eyebrows
| toward the crown, and that his length of
limb seemed to have used up his mind SO as
| to cause an air of abstraction from converse
tional topics. He appeared, indeed, to be
preoccupled with a sense of his exquisite
! cleanliness, clapped his hands together and
rubbed them frequently, slaughtered his
back, and even opened his mouth and closed
it again with a slight snap, apparently for
no other purpose than the confirmation to
himself of his own powers IN that line.
These are innocent exercises, but they
are not such as to give weight to man s
| personality. Sometimes Spikes mind,
emerging from its preocupation, burst
| forth in remark delivered with
smiling zest; as, that he did not like to see
gravel walks we'll rolled, or that lady should
always wear the best jewelry, or that bride
was a most interesting object; bat finding
e, ideas 5eofg9d ;oeF o0dy b he 5o