The English Novel and the Principle of its DevelopmentLanier, Sidney
History
The English Novel and the Principle of its Development
Lanier, Sidney
English fiction -- History and criticism
But when I was seventeen or more--after my sister was married and
I was mistress of the house--my father took a journey into
Derbyshire, in which, visiting my uncle and aunt Samuel, who were
very poor, and lived in a humble cottage at Wirksworth, he found
my aunt in a very delicate state of health after a serious
illness, and, to do her bodily good, he persuaded her to return
with him, telling her that I should be very, very happy to have
her with me for a few weeks. I was then strongly under the
influence of Evangelical belief, and earnestly endeavoring to
shape this anomalous English-Christian life of ours into some
consistency with the spirit and simple verbal tenor of the New
Testament.
I was delighted to see my aunt. Although I had only heard her
spoken of as a strange person, given to a fanatical vehemence of
exhortation in private as well as public, I believed that we
should find sympathy between us. She was then an old woman--above
sixty--and, I believe, had for a good many years given up
preaching. A tiny little woman, with bright, small dark eyes, and
hair that had been black, I imagine, but was now gray--a pretty
woman in her youth, but of a totally different physical type from
Dinah. The difference--as you will believe--was not simply
physical; no difference is. She was a woman of strong natural
excitability, which, I know, from the description I have heard my
father and half-sister give, prevented her from the exercise of
discretion under the promptings of her zeal. But this vehemence
was now subdued by age and sickness; she was very gentle and
quiet in her manners--very loving--and (what she must have been
from the very first) a truly religious soul, in whom the love of
God and love of man were fused together. There was nothing highly
distinctive in her religious conversation. I had had much
intercourse with pious Dissenters before. The only freshness I
found in our talk, came from the fact that she had been the
greater part of her life a Wesleyan; and though she left the
society when women were no longer allowed to preach, and joined
the new Wesleyans, she retained the character of thought that
belongs to the genuine old Wesleyan. I had never talked with a
Wesleyan before, and we used to have little debates about
predestination, for I was then a strong Calvinist. Here her
superiority came out, and I remember now, with loving admiration,
one thing which at the time I disapproved. It was not strictly a
consequence of her Arminian belief, and at first sight might seem
opposed to it,--yet it came from the spirit of love which clings
to the bad logic of Arminianism. When my uncle came to fetch her,
after she had been with us a fortnight or three weeks, he was
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