n; and they who, haply, seemed to him, at
first, among the most conspicuous as characters, sink, some abruptly,
some gradually, into actors of the least importance in events; as the
reader notes the same passion, in different strata, producing the most
opposite qualities, and gathers from that notice some estimate of the
vast perplexity in the code of morals, deemed by the shallow so plain
a science; when he finds that a similar and single feeling will produce
both the virtue we love and the vice we detest, the magnanimity we
admire and the meanness we despise; as the feeble hands of the author
force into contrast ignorance and wisdom, the affectation of philosophy
and its true essence, coarseness and refinement, the lowest vulgarity
of sentiment with an exaltation of feeling approaching to morbidity, the
reality of virtue with the counterfeit, the glory of the Divinity with
the hideousness of the Idol, sorrow and eager joy, marriage and death,
tears and their young successors, smiles; as all, blent together, these
varieties of life form a single yet many-coloured web, leaving us to
doubt whether, in fortune the bright hue or the dark, in character the
base material or the rich, predominate,--the workman of the web could
almost reconcile himself to his glaring and great deficiency in art
by the fond persuasion that he has, at least in his choice of tint and
texture, caught something of the likeness of Nature: but he knows,
to the abasement of his vanity, that these enumerated particulars of
resemblance to life are common to all, even to the most unskilful of his
brethren; and it is not the mere act of copying a true original, but
the rare circumstance of force and accuracy in the copy, which can alone
constitute a just pretension to merit, or flatter the artist with the
hope of a moderate success.

The news of Lord Ulswater's untimely death soon spread around the
neighbourhood, and was conveyed to Mordaunt by the very gentleman whom
that nobleman had charged with his hostile message. Algernon repaired at
once to W----, to gather from Wolfe some less exaggerated account of the
affray than that which the many tongues of Rumour had brought to him.

It was no difficult matter to see the precise share of blame to be
attached to Wolfe; and, notwithstanding the biased account of Glumford
and the strong spirit of party then existing in the country, no rational
man could for a moment term the event of a sudden fray a premeditate