kind and attentive to me. She is extremely
clever. Her understanding, indeed, may be called masculine; but
unfortunately her manners deserve the same epithet; for, in studying
to acquire the knowledge of the other sex, she has lost all the
softness of her own. In regard to myself, however, as I have neither
courage nor inclination to argue with her, I have never been
personally hurt at her want of gentleness, a virtue which
nevertheless seems so essential a part of the female character, that
I find myself more awkward and less at ease with a woman who wants
it than I do with a man."

This is a good style of its kind; and the following passage from Cecilia
is also in a good style, though not in a faultless one. We say, with
confidence, either Sam Johnson or the Devil:--

"Even the imperious Mr. Delvile was more supportable here than in
London. Secure in his own castle, he looked round him with a pride
of power and possession which softened while it swelled him. His
superiority was undisputed: his will was without control. He was
not, as in the great capital of the kingdom, surrounded by
competitors. No rivalry disturbed his peace; no equality mortified
his greatness. All he saw were either vassals of his power, or
guests bending to his pleasure. He abated, therefore, considerably
the stern gloom of his haughtiness, and soothed his proud mind by
the courtesy of condescension."

We will stake our reputation for critical sagacity on this, that no such
paragraph as that which we have last quoted can be found in any of
Madame D'Arblay's works except Cecilia. Compare with it the following
sample of her later style:--

"If beneficence be judged by the happiness which it diffuses, whose
claim, by that proof, shall stand higher than that of Mrs. Montagu,
from the munificence with which she celebrated her annual festival
for these hapless artificers who perform the most abject offices of
any authorized calling, in being the active guardians of our blazing
hearths? Not to vainglory, then, but to kindness of heart, should be
adjudged the publicity of that superb charity which made its jetty
objects, for one bright morning, cease to consider themselves as
degraded outcasts from all society."

We add one or two shorter samples. Sheridan refused to permit his lovely
wife to sing in public, and was warmly praised on this