Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the HeartJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the Heart
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
Human nature is very obtuse to description, and we seldom if ever find
any one who either attends to or applies the details that we give,
respecting any object which we wish to call up before the mind's eye
by means of the ear. Do not let poets or historians ever believe that,
by the lengthened descriptions they give, the reader ever becomes
impressed with the very scene or person that they themselves behold.
Oh, no! the reader manufactures a scene of his own, out of some of the
writer's words and many of his own imaginations or memories; or
fabricates a personage out of his own fancies and predilections; but
both scene and personage as unlike that which we have wished to
represent as possible. Thus was it, too, with Morley Ernstein and his
servants. One declared that the persons he had seen must be Mr.
Ferdinand Beckford and his young wife. Mr. Beckford was the good
priest of a neighbouring parish, and was just six-and-twenty years of
age. Another vowed that the horseman must be Mr. Thomas Ogden, Member
of Parliament for the town hard by, and the lady must be his wife.
Mrs. Ogden was somewhere between forty and fifty, and though she still
preserved a pretty face, her person was as round as a tub of Dutch
butter. A third insisted that it was Lawyer Chancery; but Ernstein
knew the lawyer, and replied--"Why he is six feet high, and I told you
this person was short."
He saw that it was in vain to enquire further in that quarter, at
least; and he now resolved to pursue another plan, to reverse the
course of proceeding which he had proposed to follow, when he had
first arrived, and to visit immediately every gentleman's house within
twenty miles. His eager spirit would bear no delay, and before night
he had called on five or six of the principal personages in the
neighbourhood. All the gentlemen around declared that it was evident
Sir Morley Ernstein intended to be very sociable; and all the ladies,
who had daughters to marry, pronounced him a very charming young man;
but Morley did not find what he sought.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account