Sarah Sheppard

“ How varied are the subjects which her versatile genius has delineated! Has it not fathomed the depths of the poet's soul, and laid bare to our gaze its glorious intellectual operations and their results,—its creations and aspirings,—its hopes and fears,—not only with poetic feeling, but with philosophic accuracy? Has not that genius led us into the interior of conventional life, and showed to us the vanity, the heartlessness, the petty strifes, the mean jealousies of the circles whose idols are outward appearances? ”

“ How many dying scenes are recorded in all their own mournfulness, yet filled with the soft light of poetical beauty! Not to mention many instances in her poems, in her prose works, those of Emily Arundel and her uncle, Guido, Francesca, Evelyn, Constance Courtenaye, Sir George Kingston and Walter Maynard, are some of the most striking and touching descriptions. Is it not thus in the actual world? Love and Death, have they not sad meetings, to contend each for its victory? Oh, truthfully is Death thus frequent on pages which unfold the earthly destinies of humanity! ”

“ Every feeling that looks to the future elevates human nature, for life is never so low, or so little, as when it concentrates itself on the present. The miserable wants, the small desires and the petty pleasures of daily existence, have nothing in common with those mighty dreams which, looking forward for action and action's reward, redeem the earth over which they walk with steps like those of an angel, beneath which spring up glorious and immortal flowers. The imagination is man's noblest and most spiritual faculty, and that ever dwells on the to-come. ”

“ Admit religion into the heart, and it will deepen and strengthen every right feeling and affection, expand and refine every sympathy, while it will wrap around the objects of our soul's love the imperishable heaven-woven mantle of the future's hope, preserving them through all the vicissitudes of this life, until we meet them in our Father's home on high.
Religion, indeed, does not promise exemption from the ordinary lot of existence, but it offers, amid all changing circumstances, an unfailing refuge. ”

“ It is a living witness of the presence, not an evidence of the absence, of genius; while the very obscurity which it occasions is pleasing as the soft summer mist stealing over a landscape, and shrouding in its half-transparent veil, woven of sun and dews, the field and forest, hill and dale, stream and flower, half-hiding, indeed, their individualities, yet withal so lovely; that we cannot persuade ourselves to wish it away. Is not the poet's language likewise beautiful as a forest tree's foliage ”

“ Take our most eminent writers, and how much actual labour must have been bestowed on their glorious offerings at the altar of their country and their fame! What a noble thing that fame is! Think what it is to be the solace of a thousand lonely hours,—to cheer the weary moments of sickness,—to fling a charm around even nature! How many are there to whom in long after-years your name will come like a note of music, who will love and honour you because you have awakened within them thoughts and feelings which stir the loftiest dreams and sweetest pulses of their nature! ”

“ Francesca is really more unhappy, and with more cause, than Guido, but not, like him, does she yield to grief's self-indulgence, or to mere imagination's morbid dreams. She thinks, she plans, she acts, she endures for both. Neither prosperous nor afflictive circumstances, admiration nor neglect, disappointment nor hope fulfilled, ever tempt her to swerve from her noble principles, or to deviate from the right line of conduct they have prescribed. ”

“ While, as a science, it is founded on that part of natural philosophy which, by mathematical deductions from constant phenomena, elucidates the properties of sounds, those sounds, which its philosophy distinguishes, music, as an art, combines in such a manner as to gratify our senses while it captivates our imagination. And then, how numberless are the technicalities of this art! what endless combinations of notes, what adjustment of tones, what adaptation of concords and discords, what varied modulations of harmony, enter into every noble composition! ”

“ Ascend a step higher, and ask the individuals to whom Affection has become a world,—who have made one fellow-being the lode-star, the centre of their soul,—if they be happy? They will turn pale, as they tell you of the fear of separation, of the dread of losing the object who has become as the very life of their life.
Or go on to the lofty Intellectual natures who hold alone dominion far above their kind,—who would fain believe, and make others believe, that their imaginings and pursuits are self-sufficing,—if they be happy? ”

“ Extracts form "Francesca Carrara."
"Mutable as is our nature, it delights in the immutable, and we expect as much constancy as if all time, to say nothing of our own changeableness, had not shown that ever 'the fashion of this world passeth away.' And this alone would be to me the convincing proof of the immortality of the soul or mind, or whatever is the animating principle of life. Whether it be the shadow cast from a previous existence, or an intuition of one to come, the love of that which lasts is an inherent impulse in our nature. ”

“ If the shadows of earthly sorrow may sometimes deepen into midnight gloom, to the Christian there ever ariseth light in darkness, for he sees already dawning above the horizon the bright and morning star which shall guide him to the regions of cloudless and everlasting day.
Religion can alone fill the heart here with a peace which, as the world cannot give, so neither can it take away, and prepare its possessor for that future state where there is a fulness of joy,—for that divine inheritance where there are pleasures for evermore. ”

“ The greater the power and the more extensive the capabilities of an instrument, the more cogent are the reasons for rescuing it from the service of evil, and employing it as an agent of good. Is it not, therefore, important, that so efficient an auxiliary as fiction should not be contentedly left for a moment as a priestess to folly and vice, but should be sedulously won over, appropriated and consecrated by wisdom and virtue to their high and noble services, in the vast temple sacred to the improvement of human society? ”

“ A voice is on the air, and a music on the wind, inaudible to other ears, but full of strange prophecies to the dying; he stands on the threshold of existence, and already looks beyond it; his thoughts are on things not of this life; his affections are now the only limits that bind him to this earth; but never was their power so great; all other feelings have passed away. Ambition has gone down to the dust from which it so vainly rose; wealth is known to be the vilest dross of which chains were ever formed to glitter and to fall ”

“ And this was the career Walter Maynard now proposed to himself—a career begun under the brightest auspices of imagination, but closed amid the darkest shadows of disappointment and of hope unfulfilled. Such were the convictions whose reality he fully verified in his experience. He leaves the scene of his youthful dreams and noble aspirations to seek fame among men. He is soon destined to pine under the harsh realities of life. Necessity forces him to write for his daily bread. ”

“ Beatrice's feelings, on the contrary, had been early taught the necessity of restraint; her imagination, curbed by action, had only been allowed to colour, not create circumstances; and her solitude had been one of constant and useful employment. Both had much mental cultivation; but Emily's was accomplishment, Beatrice's was information. The one dreamed, the other thought; the one, only accustomed to feel, acted from impulse; the other, forced to reflect, soon formed for herself a standard of principle. Emily was governed by others, Beatrice relied on herself. ”

“ How would the characters thus hallowed rise in dignity, usefulness and happiness!—how would all circumstances call forth the noble self-denial, the generous sacrifice, the voluntary assistance!—how would trials be represented as patiently endured, blessings as thankfully enjoyed!—how would all the aspirations of the soul be moulded into beneficial influences, and the poet's dying hour become irradiated with thankfulness, and a hope full of immortality! ”

“ But in the midst of her happiness that entire love which can only be answered by love, finds that it is not fully requited. Kind and attentive as her husband was, the impress of his earlier attachment is visible on his spirit to the searching eye and subtle instinct of love. His kindness "too often appeared to Constance as if it had something to make up to its object." With most touching pathos is depicted her sweet openness to Lady Marchmont, whom, for the moment, she fancied had been her rival. ”

“ We stand beside the tomb, but we look beyond it, and sorrow is as the angel that sits at the gate of heaven."
"Wordsworth is the most poetical of philosophers. Strange that a man can be so great a poet, and yet deficient in what are poetry's two grand requisites,— imagination and passion! He describes what he has seen, and beautifully, because he is impressed with the beauty before his eyes. He creates nothing. ”

“ And we know that a far higher Authority than any human voice has warned us, that temporal happiness consists only of evanescent pleasures and flattering anticipations, which, if not absolutely delusive, if occasionally partially realized, are yet not connected vitally and permanently with our inmost being. We are taught, ay, and often made to feel, by bitter experience, that all which claims the name of enjoyment is only a glittering tracery on the sands of our present position, which the next wave of time may sweep for ever from our sight. ”

“ How much, too, of the Poet's inner life is embodied in the stanzas on visiting Newstead Abbey.
As these poems will verify many of the previous remarks, we give them each entire.
Lines suggested on visiting Newstead Abbey.
What makes the Poet? Nothing but to feel
More keenly than the common sense of feeling;
To have the soul attuned to the appeal
Of the dim music thro' all nature stealing.
Ah! Poetry is like love, its own avenger,
Sweet thoughts, fine fancies by its footsteps roam;
It wanders thro’ the world a lovely stranger,
To find this weary world is not its home. ”

“ Let not religion be spoken of as melancholy; for how can that be a melancholy influence, which, while it elevates, satisfies every power, and breathes into every deep and true enjoyment the breath of immortal life! Existence, destitute of this influence, must be indeed necessarily and essentially melancholy; but admit religion, and you admit what will raise and brighten human nature with all its powers and susceptibilities, its deepest sources of interest and its dearest objects of affection. ”

“ It is indeed to be regretted that, like most other agencies which are at all under man's control, fiction has been perverted to base and ignoble purposes, Vices, which in them selves are very fiends of darkness, decked in fiction’s robes, have walked the world as angels of light. Fiction hereby has been made a minister to evil passions, and her works have been constructed as a vestibule leading through deception to wickedness. ”

“ Swift has defined "Sight" as "the art of seeing things invisible;" there is much truth and philosophy in this seeming paradox, while it admits of special application to the mental vision of genius. In scenes and objects that to common eyes appear just what they are, and nothing beyond—common minds wondering what can be said of them—the gifted intellect discerns a charm they cannot see, and hears a voice they cannot hear. ”

“ The characteristic of Rebecca is high mindedness born of self-reliance. From a very infant she must have been a 'being breathing thoughtful breath.'*** From her infancy she must have learnt to be alone. Solitude, which enervates the weak, feeds and invigorates the strong, mind. Skilled in the art of healing, she knew the delight of usefulness; and she learnt to pity, because familiar with suffering. No one, not even the most careless, can stand beside the bed of sickness and death without learning their sad and solemn lessons. ”

“ L. E. L.'s own words have told us that "nothing more truly proves that life is but a trial than the pleasures which depart, the sense of enjoyment which deadens, and the disappointments which spring up at every step in our pilgrimage. Could life preserve its illusions, who would be fit to die? Vanity of vanities is written on this side of the grave but that we may more clearly discern that on the other shines the hope of immortality." ”

“ Intellect, with its lofty aspirations, but comparatively feeble effects; genius, with its burning energies, surrounded by antagonist elements; emotion, pouring out its treasures on the unthankful and unreturning sands; earthly hope, ever ending in disappointment or satiety; worldly pleasure, wearing out its votary with unsatisfying dissipation; life, in short, affording no rest to the soul,—no aliment suited to the cravings of an immortal spirit. ”

“ How beautifully and instructively might she have given in contrast what life becomes when it is guided and governed, elevated and blessed, by true religion! Of this we have a few glimpses in one or two of her characters,—in the hallowed influence which is represented as comforting and strengthening Beatrice under all her dangers and duties, as supporting Francesca in all her varied trials, and as enabling Constance Courtenaye calmly to die in peace and hope through that divine belief whose trust is immortal, and to which the Bible had been her guide. ”