English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Literature -- History and criticism
Boys and young people, then, can read "Westward Ho!" and "Hypatia," and
"Hereward the Wake," with far more pleasure than their elders. They
hurry on with the adventures, and do not stop to ask what the moralisings
mean. They forgive the humour of Kingsley because it is well meant. They
get, in short, the real good of this really great and noble and manly and
blundering genius. They take pleasure in his love of strong men, gallant
fights, desperate encounters with human foes, with raging seas, with
pestilence, or in haunted forests. For in all that is good of his
talent--in his courage, his frank speech, his love of sport, his clear
eyes, his devotion to field and wood, river, moor, sea, and
storms--Kingsley is a boy. He has the brave, rather hasty, and not over
well-informed enthusiasm of sixteen, for persons and for causes. He saw
an opponent (it might be Father Newman): his heart lusted for a fight; he
called his opponent names, he threw his cap into the ring, he took his
coat off, he fought, he got a terrible scientific drubbing. It was like
a sixth-form boy matching himself against the champion. And then he bore
no malice. He took his defeat bravely. Nay, are we not left with a
confused feeling that he was not far in the wrong, though he had so much
the worse of the fight?
Such was Kingsley: a man with a boy's heart; a hater of cruelty and
injustice, and also with a brave, indomitable belief that his own country
and his own cause were generally in the right, whatever the quarrel. He
loved England like a mistress, and hated her enemies, Spain and the Pope,
though even in them he saw the good. He is for ever scolding the Spanish
for their cruelties to the Indians, but he defends our doings to the
Irish, which (at that time) were neither more nor less oppressive than
the Spanish performances in America. "Go it, our side!" you always hear
this good Kingsley crying; and one's heart goes out to him for it, in an
age when everybody often proves his own country to be in the wrong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account