DR. DARWIN. child; and now, in age, I can only describe him from the stores I then laid up in my memory. It was in the latter part of the morning that a carriage drove up to our door, of that description then called a "sulky," because calculated to hold one person only. The carriage was worn, and bespotted with mud. Lashed on to the place appropriated to the boot in ordinary carriages, was a large pail, for the purpose of watering the horses, together with some hay and oats beside it. In the top of the carriage was a skylight, with an awning, which could at pleasure be drawn over; this was for the purpose of giving light to the doctor, who wrote most of his works on scraps of paper as he travelled. The front of the carriage within was occupied by a receptacle for writing paper and pencils, likewise for a knife, fork, and spoon; on one side was a pile of books, reaching from the floor to nearly the front window of the carriage; on the other, a hamper containing fruit and sweetmeats, cream and sugar, great part of which, however, was demolished during the time the carriage traversed the forty miles which separated Derby from Barr. We all hastened to the parlour window to see Dr. Darwin, of whom we had heard so much, and whom I was prepared to honour and venerate, in no common degree, as the restorer of my mother's health. What then was my astonishment at beholding him, as he slowly got out of the carriage! His figure was vast and massive, his head was almost buried on his shoulders, and he wore a scratch wig, as it was then called, tied up in a little bob-tail behind. A habit of stammering made the closest attention necessary, in order to understand what he said. Meanwhile, amidst all this, the doctor's eye was deeply sagacious, the most so, I think, of any eye I remember ever to have seen; and I can conceive that no patient consulted Dr. Darwin, who, so far as intelligence was concerned, was not inspired with confidence in beholding him; his observation was most keen; he constantly detected disease, from his sagacious observation of symptoms, apparently so slight as to be unobserved by other doctors. His horror o! fermented liquors, and his belief in the advantages both of eating largely, and eating an almost immeasurable abundance of sweet things, was well known to all his friends; and we had on this occasion, as, indeed, was the custom whenever he came, a luncheon-table set out with hot-house fruit, and West India sweetmeats, clotted cream, Stilton cheese, &c. "No The materialism of Dr. Darwin's whole views of life made a most powerful impression on the thoughtful and devotional mind of the little girl who listened to him. We add to the details in the work before us a slight instance of the bent of his ideas from our own recollections. creature is happy while it is cold," was a saying of his. Had our authoress heard this also, it is probable she would have quoted from her favourite Veillées du Chateau, that the little peasant, Augustin, who was found perishing with cold in the forest by the children of the castle, was happy when he stripped off his jacket to endeavour to preserve warmth in his little brother. I must, however, here in candour, add one observation. When I retrace, in my mind, much which Dr. Darwin said, the review strikes me with the utmost horror and wonder. Yet there was much to make the tone of his remarks then appear less extraordinary to those who heard them. It seemed as though the French revolution had affected the whole fabric of social life, and had been the occasion of a The gathering murmurs of the fast approaching tempest of the French Revolution, fell upon Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck's childish ear, much as the first appearances of the American impressed, at a similar age, Mrs. Grant, who has recorded, in a striking description, her recollection of "the pale and agitated countenances of the English officers," as they were first made aware of the deep reality of the great contest which resulted in the declaration of American independence. Amongst the habitual family routine to which we now returned, was that of receiving the Lunar meetings. The first of these was marked by Mr. Boulton's presenting to the company his son, just returned from a long séjour in Paris. I well remember my astonishment at his full dress, in the highest adornment of Parisian fashion; but I noticed, as a remarkable thing, that the company (which consisted of some of the first men in Europe) all with one accord gathered round him, and asked innumerable questions, the drift of which I did not fully understand. It was wonderful to me to see Dr. Priestley, Dr. Withering, Mr. Watt, Mr. Boulton himself, Mr. Ren, manifest the most intense interest, each according to his prevailing characteristic, as they almost hung upon his words; and it was impossible to mistake the indications of deep anxiety, hope, fear, curiosity, ardent zeal, or thoughtful gravity, which alternately marked their countenances, as well as those of my own parents. My ears caught the words "Marie Antoinette," "the Cardinal de Rohan," ""diamond necklace," "famine, discontent among the people," "sullen silence, instead of shouts of Vive le Roi!" All present seemed to give a fearful attention. Why, I did not well know, and in a day or two these things were almost forgotten by me; but the rest of the party heard, no doubt, in this young man's narrative, the distant, though as yet faint, rising of the storm which, a year later, was to burst upon France, and, in its course, to desolate Europe. It was one evening in this summer, towards the end of July, I well remember, the glorious sun was declining behind the distant hills, and the long shadows were spreading over the woods and meadows, when we saw at a distance a vehicle (usually employed to carry servants to town or Church) returning at more than its usual speed. After some minutes, the door of the drawing-room opened, and in burst Harry, William Priestley's brother, a youth of sixteen or seventeen, waving his hat, and crying out, "Hurrah! Liberty, Reason, brotherly love for ever! Down with kingeraft and priesteraft. The Majesty of the people for ever! France is free, the Bastille is taken; William was there, and helping. I have just got a letter from him. He has put up the picture of the Bastille, and two stones from its ruins, for you" (addressing himself to me), "which you will soon receive; but come, you must hear his letter." I am not now We all stood thunderstruck. about to speak of public events, with which I have nothing to do, but of the effects they produced on the domestic sphere with which I had experience. I have seen the reception of the news of the victory of Waterloo, and of the carrying of the Reform Bill, but I never saw joy comparable in its vivid intensity and universality, to that occasioned by the early promise of the French Revolution. It can only be explained by the deeply latent heresy of the human heart, which, while it asserts that knowledge is power, ignores that power is both fratricidal and suicidal to happiness, till laid at the foot of the Cross, and till the heart that wields it is baptised and regenerated by the love of God. We add to this description of the reception of the news of the destruction of the Bastille in sudden outburst of universal delirium, sweeping away all its Birmingham, the different picture of the arrival of courtesies and decorums. The conversations then of Dr. Darwin, though extreme even at that time, were yet in keeping with the universal spirit of the age. the intelligence of the decapitation of Louis XVI., in the ancient cathedral city of Norwich. There, to our own knowledge, on the arrival of the infor mation of that event in the evening, a zealous | champion of royalty hastened from house to house of all the families he could reach about to attend an assembly, then so called, held that night; entreating them to appear in even the smallest badge of mourning, as a demonstration of public feeling in England on the occasion. Compliance with his request was manifested by the general adoption of improvised mourning dress at the ball. The progress of a mind such as Mrs. SchimmelPenninck's, amidst persons and events such as have been indicated, could not fail to furnish a deeply interesting study; and we especially commend it, in all its aspects, to the attentive consideration of all engaged in the development of individual nature in childhood. Many a parent and many a tutor may gather hints and instruction of the most valuable kind from a careful study of passages in the work before us, which display the forces brought to bear from so many opposite quarters upon a character well fitted, by its natural powers, to exemplify their various effects; resulting, through many painful and some injurious struggles, in the development of the affluence of a nature, where, eventually, the firmest convictions of the spirit were united with the most liberal manysidedness of general judgment. The conflicts of the old and new Adam in the breast of the youthful combatant were actually heightened, instead of being subdued, by the mental training she underwent. In the completest mingling with the admirable religious instructions of Mrs. Galton to her little daughter, and no small portion of the mental discipline of the Friends, to whose communion her whole family, nominally, at least, belonged, came in full vigour, such training as Plutarch might have recorded, and Lycurgus have commended. My father and mother constantly desired me to bear pain ike a philosopher or a Stoic. I remember my mother telling me of the little Spartan boy, who, having stolen a fox, let it gnaw him to the heart without his betraying pain; and she asked me when I should be able to do the same. One day some cotton which was on my hand having caught fire, my mother bade me bring it slowly to her. She was at the opposite end of a long room, and I was told to walk slowly, lest the flame should catch my dress, and not to mind the pain, but to be like the boys of Sparta. I did so, but the scar remained on my hand many, many years. my Very different was the sweet teaching of knee. She would often bid me place my little stool beside her at tea, and tell me long and interesting fairy tales; and still oftener Scripture histories, illustrative of the pictures on the Dutch tiles, which then formed the common orna ment of chimney-pieces. I used to listen with delight to the history of Noah or of Abraham, of Joseph and his Brethren, of Caleb and Joshua, of David and Jonathan; and well do I recall the contrast, even then, between the inflation and exulting pride with which I heard the stories of the Grecian heroes and philosophers, and the sweet and soothing feeling of rest with which I listened to those of the holy men of old. The one seemed like the glare and strength of the noon-day sun; the other like the sweet and refreshing calm of evening. Some excellent remarks on the effect of children's reading fairy tales occur further on. We are happy to think that, in the varying fashions of their mental diet, this exquisite and salutary banquet is again permitted to be served up to the keen appetite of the nursery. To the little philosophers of Barr, such sources of entertainment were prohibited, as containing false views of nature; while, on the other hand, they were told of burning mountains, showers of blood, and hills of loadstone, as familiar facts, until Mary Anne constantly returned from her daily walk, disappointed at not having encountered some one of these prodigies. I am often surprised when I think of my present pacific principles, and I may say disposition, and recollect the great delight I then had in all that part of Rollin, which describes the war of the ancients. The battering-ram, the ballista, the tortoise, the musculus, and the crow, were then objects of great interest and study to me; and I remember saving my pocket-money to purchase "Mezerai's Tactics." We used to arrange all the different battles with hazel-nuts and holly-berries, according to the plans in that book. Grievous was it to me when the dressing-bell sounded and interrupted the battle of Thyambra, Issus, or Arbela. Scarcely less interesting than my Uncle Toby's turning the siege of Dendermond into a blockade, in order to march to the relief of Lieutenant Lefevre. The contrasted effects of raising aloft before the youthful combatant in the battle of life at once the Pagan and the Christian standards of morals came to a climax, when at fourteen the authoress was introduced to Pope's Homer, and the glowing denunciations of the ninth book were listened to with delight on Saturday evening, to be followed by the solemn enforcement of the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount on Sunday. Long since it has been shown me that "there is but ONE good, that is, GOD;" that there is but one beautiful, that is, the reflection of GOD; and just as in all heresies there must be a portion of doctrinal truth, however travestied, to form a cement for the false incorporated with it so in all Pagan taste there must be a semblance, it may be a travestie or caricature of some of the Divine perfections, to impart life to the false and poisonous principles incorporated therewith. Now, I apprehend that the principle incorporated with the Pagan idea of glory, is that of the Divine power and energy of will, stupendous in itself, but in Pagan literature shining forth through fogs of pride, selfishness, and revenge. The principle enunciated in this passage was the fruitful germ in Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck's mind of her "Theory of Beauty and Deformity," to the re-writing and elaboration of which in its complete Christian development much of her thought and time was devoted, as to the consecration of the talents committed to her to the service and honour of her Lord. Not less varied were the influences of society upon the mind of the authoress than those of literature. Her visits to her paternal grandfather at Dudson, near Birmingham, afford a delightful LIFE OF MARY ANN SCHIMMEL-PENNINCK. picture of that mingling of the most rigid sense of duty with the purest benevolence, and the most adoring enjoyment of the bounty of Providence in all its creations, which seem peculiarly the portion of the higher examples among the Society of Friends. In connection with this religious society, we commend to the attention of our readers the exquisite little romance of his early days, narrated by the aged Sampson Lloyd, an episode preserved by Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck, in a manner worthy of the pen of John Buncle. It is too long for extraction, but we notice it here as a remarkable accidental proof of the fidelity of the authoress's narrations, a reference to the beauty and elegance of the heroine "Betsy Fido," to be found in a work of the last century, the "Travels in France," of the clever and eccentric Philip Thicknesse, whose disgust at the disfiguring monstrosities of French female dress before the Revolution were heightened by his recollections of the becoming simplicity of quaker garb, in the person of "the elegant Miss Fido, a woman of that persuasion." The heterogeneous influences at work upon the authoress's character were further augmented by a visit of the family to Bath, occasioned by an illness of Mrs. Galton's, which had painfully severed her adoring daughter from her, and consigned her to the charge of governesses, ill-fitted to direct that loving and deeply-searching nature. It so happened that this year (1788) being the centenary of the arrival of King William, not a lady was to be seen without streaming orange ribbons, or gentleman without rosettes of the same in their button-holes. Besides this, balloons were at that time just come into vogue, and everybody wore huge balloon bonnets, with magnificent ostrich feathers; and what appeared to me indescribably beautiful, were the ample muffs and long tippets, and fur linings, of the silken Angora goat's hair. At Bath, the family circle was increased by the arrival of Sir William Watson, son of George III.'s physician, of the same name, and Lady Watson, Mrs. Galton's sister, who possessed a full share of the beauty, the wit, and the energy of the Barclays of Ury, but without the calm colossal dignity of its carlier representatives, a most bencvolent, lively woman of the world for which she lived. One of her maxims was, "We live amongst fools, we have to make use of them, to act upon them for their good and our own; and if they are only to be caught with gold, why, we must gild our nets, if we mean to catch them." Christiana and Priscilla Hannah Gurney, the daughters of Lady Watson by her first husband, were among the most attractive and excellent possessors of their name, and their young cousin's admiration and sympathy were unbounded; but at Barr Mary Anne had studied Virgil's first "Eclogue," listening to the wild bees and the woodlark's song, at the foot of an oak-crowned precipice, by a wild mill-stream, filled with flags and bulrushes, and the haunt of the heron and the king-fisher. At the house of Sir William Watson, a man of wit and science, at Dawlish, 349 where the party now removed, the literary food of the carefully-trained youthful friend consisted, in its mildest form, of a deluge of the sickly sentimental novels of the day,-in its more vigorous, of the novels of Fielding and Smollett, which occupied of course at that time a place on the shelves of the library. From these, on her mother's arrival, she turned with a feeling of absolute refreshment to reading the "Arabian Nights," with William Priestley; and, according to the mentally stimulating habits of this accomplished circle, their perusal sent her in quest of fresh information respecting Iblis, Istrakan, the Giaours, and the Fire-worshippers. A number of interesting records of the successive impulses which agitated the mind of the nation towards the close of the last century, are to be met with continually in Mrs. SchimmelPenninck's pages; and this work, describing with a fidelity above suspicion, and with an intelligence of a rare order, the bearings of cultivated society at that epoch, will long be referred to as au arbiter of authority on the times of which it treats. In describing the effects of the dawn of the French Revolution— Among the changes which at that time took place in the subjects of conversation, I must not forget to mention that animal magnetism, which was just before at its height, and exciting universal interest, then suddenly dropped, nor was it resumed, so far as I know, till forty years afterwards. As men became more engrossed with the visible world, and with the things of time, those questions which had their beginning in the invisible world, and which derived their paramount interest from the connection of spirit with matter, the boundary which separates them, and the laws which regulate their action upon each other, became less interesting. On the authoress's return from Bath at the close of 1788: The Slave-trade was a continual subject of conversation at this time. We were also deeply interested in the trial of Warren Hastings, and in Boswell's "Life of Johnson;" and all the nation mourned, as with the mourning of children, the heavy calamity which had then befallen George III. With sad hearts his subjects listened to dis. cussions on the need of a regency. Well I remember how no barrel-organ played "God save the King," without bringing tears to the eyes of many who listened. Three years later : "Bruce's But the great interest of the winter was Travels." This book was then new. The estates of Bruce, of Kinnaird, adjoined those of my maternal grand. father, Robert Barclay, of Ury. They were intimate friends, and when all the world, with one voice, sconted what they considered the improbabilities detailed in these Travels, my grandfather Barclay always said, "I have known Bruce intimately from his early years; he is too strong a man to have been thwarted by difficulties; he is far too able to have been deceived, and he is infinitely too proud to tell a lie." My mother, noble herself, and above suspicion, gave his writings full credence. We need not say that the accomplished lady was entirely mistaken in her opinion of the geographical position of her maternal grandfather's estates. There were three of them-two adjoining, and one perhaps ten miles south of the others, and that smaller possession eighty miles north from the estate held by Bruce, the Africa traveller. The intervening distance destroyed neighbourhood, when it occupied two days to a man and horse. Dr. Priestley frequently visited as this winter. He was never tired of talking to my mother of Bruce; he thought the passages containing the history of Abyssinia, and the details concerning the Queen of Sheba, gave an important attestation to the truth of Scripture history, and afforded a clear light on the rise of many religious customs and doctrines. He was a full believer in the authenticity of Bruce. How little Dr. Priestley anticipated when he uttered these sentiments, that the day would arrive when Babylon and Nineveh would again be laid open to light, when the hieroglyphics of Egypt would be understood, and Babylon, and Assyria, and Egypt would, as it were, conjointly break the silence of a tomb of forty centuries, and unite their voices to give one concurrent three-fold testimony to Him proclaimed by Moses to Pharaoh, by Jonah to Nineveh, by Daniel to Babylon, even the triune living God, the Jehovah of Israel. Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck did not inherit the bodily strength of her ancestry. Painful attacks of spasmodic asthma in her childhood were supposed to originate in weakness of the spine, and from the age of eleven to that of eighteen, she was condemned to wear the machine invented by a Mr. Jones, which appears to have been one of those successively fashionable medical appliances, by which suffering humanity is further tortured. Spartan discipline here also was to be adhered to, and to the authoress's bodily trials the conflicts of the spirit were added. No mind was ever more utterly and purely free than that of Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck, from what William Smith, of Norwich, denounced in his place in the House of Commons-alas! too truly in the case of Southey-as "the rancour of a renegade," if, indeed, this odious term were in any respect appropriate to the religious changes and convictions she underwent, changes and convictions not rarely to be met with among the cultivated sects of the Dissenters of past times, where the alteration is altogether one of addition, and nothing has to be removed, as in the case of converts to Romanism. Here is her estimate of Dr. Priestley I can never forget the impression produced on me by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed present with God by recollection, and with man by cheerfulness. I well remember that in the assembly of these distinguished men, amongst whom Mr. Boulton, by his noble manners, his fine countenance, (which much resembled that of Louis XIV.,) and princely munificence stood pre-eminently as the great Mecanas, even as a child, I used to feel, when Dr. Priestley entered after him, that the glory of the one was terrestrial, that of the other celestial; and utterly far as I am removed from a belief of the suffi ciency of Dr. Priestley's theological creed, I cannot but here record this evidence of the eternal power of any portion of truth held in vitality. He had been trained in a most orthodox gospel faith. His affections and his habits had been formed and disciplined in the old Presbyterian school. It was only in afterlife that he gradually imbibed his peculiar sentiments, so that it might almost be said that his heart and life were implanted in the principles of Gospel faith, and that his The struggles, only alluded to here, of a most earnest and loving nature, sought deeper rest, and in the religious commuuion of the Moravians the strong but wearied pinions of her soul found their enduring repose ;--repose enduring indeed, but not undisturbed. Her taste and imagination had been prepossessed in early life by familiar intercourse with several cultivated and devout persons of the Roman Catholic Church, and her spirit soothed by occasional attendance upon its ordinances; and at a much later period of her life, several distinguished members of that faith sought, as they hoped, to complete the conquest over her mind. Others of her more attached friends watched the conflict with venerating but anxious silence. The result could scarcely have been doubtful to those acquainted with the manner in which the strong foundations of her character had been laid. At the age of twenty-eight, Mary Anne Galton was united in marriage to Mr. Lambert SchimmelPenninck, a gentleman of the noble Dutch family, the head of which, the late Count Schimmel-Penninck held the high rank of Stadtholder of Holland. Mr. Schimmel-Penninck was engaged in business, not with uniform success, in the city of Bristol. He was a man of accomplished mind. The union was long and happy, and in the season of difficulty the practical energy and integrity of his wife's character shone eminently forth. It is with deep regret that we feel compelled to add, from a sense of the instructive warning thus conveyed, that, from the circumstances of the settlement of Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck's property at her marriage, suggested by her father, and afterwards considered by her husband and herself as injurious to their just interests, arose the commencement of the estrangement, excepting in the instance of one individual, during the remainder of her life, between herself and the members of a family so amply endowed with the gifts of fortune. Deep was Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck's sorrow at this separation from her beloved mother, which was humbly accepted by her as a chastisement. As an authoress, Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck was chiefly known through her "Select Memoirs of Port-Royal," which charming work has passed through many editions. To her is justly due the honour of first holding up to English readers the torch of light, which enabled them to discern in this band of saints and sages the advancing tread and animated countenances of a chosen cohort of the noble army of martyrs. Hannah More wrote to her,-"I am glad to see you have so much contributed to make PortRoyalism known in this country. Even religious readers are, in general, ignorant of the treasures of religion and learning possessed by these devoted people. I was, even at an early period of my spiritual reading, so warm in their praise, that Dr. Johnson used to call me Jansenist.' The direction of Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck's mind to a work, the final completion of which occupied her attention until the very close of her life, and in which her genius and originality are especially displayed, was given at the early age of ten years, when she first became acquainted with Lavater's Physiognomy. It was Madame de la Fitte's French translation, equally distinguished for an eloquence which gives it the effect of an original work, and for accurate physiognomical portraits, the peculiar characteristics of which have been altogether blunted and lost, in the English elaborate but unfaithful plates. Hour after hour did I spend entranced over its contents. Its ardent piety, its elevated aims, and consecrated objects absorbed my whole soul, just as a first view of an ocean, a sunset, or a mountain. How did the eighth Psalm, as I now read it in Lavater, seem the utterance of my heart; and his picture of the family of adoring worshippers, looking upwards to God, with arms stretched out, soaring towards the immortal world, made an indelible impression on me. I took them to be all portraits, and my very heart said from its inmost depths, "O that I knew such people! people from whose faces and attitudes the light of God's glory seems reflected!" Then I looked at all the other portraits, and read what was said of each, with carnest curiosity. I loved to see how, in every face, some trace of goodness, or intelligence, or capacity for blessing, might be found. It was to me of the deepest interest to watch every change in my mother's countenance, as I sat beside her. Oh! how fervently did I often pray to God, as I sat with her, that He would indeed give me an understanding heart, that I might comprehend the language of every look, and be able to supply her wants before she could express them. This became another source of interest to me in studying Lavater. I not only turned over his pages, and dwelt on every portrait, with the view to know the lines of character in general, but I learnt to observe the fleeting changes which sweep across the countenance. And this feeling with regard to my mother, and this book of Lavater, have, together, been the means of laying the foundation of what has been the prevailing bias of my life. In after-years, my physiognomical knowledge became much extended by a study of temperament and phrenology; and as time went on, my ardour expanded for tracing that connexion of mind with the material world, that incarnation of truth in the forms of beauty, which imparts the charm to landscape, to music, to painting, and to architecture, showing forth the attributes of the Divine Being in them all. Afterwards, it became still further extended in the solemn yet blessed delight of studying God's own symbolism, not only in nature, but likewise in the study of the Hebrew languageHis own appointed tongue whereby to convey the revelation of Himself, still under symbols, to His creature man; and thus, by a holy and blessed artistic power, to bridge over the immense interval that separates spirit from flesh, in order that HIS SPIRIT may teach man more easily to "search the deep things of God," by presenting them, as in the fulness of time He presented His dear Son, in a form in which the Divinity of the principle is both concealed and manifested, under the Incarnation. Thus was the die of my inward life cast. We extract from the narrative of Mrs. Schimmel - Penninck's judicious and affectionate biographer some notice of her "Theory of Beauty and Deformity," which appeared in 1815: The "Theory" suggests an answer to the vexed question concerning the standard of beauty. It shows that the error had been in seeking for one standard of beauty, when nature has constituted several. These standards of beauty the author considers to be evidently on the successively developed perceptions and requirements of man, and to con. sist respectively in the reflection from material objects, of the power, the love, and the life of the Divine Being. In later life, Mrs. Schimmel-Penninck lamented that in this early work her "Theory" had not received its proper application to Christian art and Christian taste, nor had been based on its true foundation in Christian truth. It was her cherished wish to re-write the whole, from the enlarged and deepened convictions of her later mind. She believed that the task of unfolding the eternal principles of beauty, though humble compared with that of teaching Spiritual truth, was yet of practical importance. She considered "the tastes to be the extreme ramifications of principles," and she held that the arrangement of a house, and of domestic scenery, according to the perceptions of a rightly informed taste, went far towards promoting the cheerfulness and harmonious feelings of those who would receive its influence. She was deeply anxious, therefore, to discharge the task which she believed had been committed to her, to the glory of God; and her posthumous work on the "Principles of Beauty" is the result of this desire. It was written in the latter years of her life, but while it might yet be said of her, that, spiritually, "her eye was not dim, nor her natural force abated." The immediate appearance of this posthumous volume is now announced. |