310 'LAUDARI A LAUDATO: mitred Rochester would nod his head in approval, and accomplished St. John with open arms welcome one poet more : "Happy my studies, when by these approved! The second line may remind us of the aspiration of "Moi, qui, pour tout trésor, ne voudrais obtenir Gibbon avows in his Autobiography that, when present at the "august spectacle of Mr. Hastings in Westminster Hall," and a delighted listener to "Mr. Sheridan's eloquence," he could not hear without emotion the personal compliment which the orator paid him* in the presence of the British nation. The rational pride of an author, said Gibbon in another place, may be offended, rather than flattered, by vague indiscriminate praise; but he cannot, nor should he, be indifferent to the fair testimonies of private and public esteem. Thackeray quotes the eulogy passed by Gibbon on Tom Jones, and his prediction of its enduring vitality, as the sentence not to be gainsaid of a great judge; for, to have your name mentioned by Gibbon "is like having it written on the dome of St. Peter's. Pilgrims from all the world admire and behold it." Hood dedicated his Hero and Leander to Coleridge, in a copy of verses of which this is the terminus ad quem: "But I am thirsty for thy praise, for when We gain applauses from the great in name, * But which the quizzical orator affected afterwards to explain away, by resolving, or expanding and diluting, the "luminous page of Gibbon" into vo-luminous. PRAISE FROM SIR HUBERT STANLEY? 311 Leigh Hunt, too, wrote his Hero and Leander; and great kudos he thought it when told of Wordsworth taking down the poem from a bookseller's shelf, to show some persons present how swimming ought to be described. And of another of his works he tells a friend that Wordsworth's expression of a regard for them—“ no habit, you know, of his, towards my verses "-gave him what he is pleased to call " a kind of sneaking satisfaction," and a "shabby pleasure," but what was evidently above the sneaking or shabby stage, and was to Leontius a thing to boast of and a joy for ever. Clarkson Stanfield, in a letter of thanks to Etty for spontaneous praise of one of his pictures, says: “There is nothing so gratifying to the feelings of a painter as the praise of his brothers in the art, . . . and 'approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.'" The one passage or phrase that is still remembered in Morton's once popular, and not even yet entirely shelved, comedy of A Cure for the Heartache is, "Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley "which has passed into a proverb, though very few, probably, are aware of its derivation. When Garrick, from the stage, saw Pope in a side box, viewing him with a serious and minute attention, the poet's look shot and thrilled like lightning through the actor's frame, and the latter had some hesitation in proceeding, from anxiety and from joy. But when, as Richard gradually blazed forth, (Richard himself again,) and the house was in a roar of applause, and "the conspiring hand of Pope" showered him with laurels, well might young David's heart leap; for he worshipped genius, and here was come, in intent to judge him, in effect to applaud him, the most notable man of his time. Young Miss Hannah More might well stare, as she says she did, with incredulous delight, when Dr. Johnson praised her Bas bleu with an effusion of flattery out 312 'LAUDARI A LAUDATO: doing all she had ever received before, all put together: "This from Johnson, that parsimonious praiser! I told him I was delighted at his approbation; he answered quite characteristically: 'And so you may, for I give you the opinion of a man who does not rate his judgment in these things very low, I can tell you.'" It was a crisis, a turning-point; in the career of Robert Burns, when a letter of admiration from Dr. Blacklock opened new prospects to his poetic ambition; for "the Doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause I had not dared to hope." Professor Wilson's praise, "not conveyed in scanty driblets," was gratefully recognized by struggling and aspiring members of his class, as equal to a house or estate. As dear to poor scholars at the time as to Rinaldo that of the preux chevalier, whose "sweet words and praises soft," so made his heart rejoice, the more that "well he knew, though much he praised him, all his words were true," and for which he returned thanks as became giver and receiver, "For much it glads me that my power and might The heart hardly deserves praise, that is not fond of it from the worthy, muses the Honourable Miss Byron in Richardson's novel. Sir William Jones opines that "Praise, of which virtuous minds may boast, And Miss Byron aforesaid, towards the end of her almost endless history, discovers a new and keener delight in the laudari à laudato, when the praiser is not only a Sir Charles Grandison, but her own Sir Charles, the nearest to her and the dearest of all human beings : "I thought at the time I had a foretaste of the joys of heaven. How sweet is the incense of praise from a husband; that husband a good man; my surrounding friends THE DEAREST PRAISE OF ALL. 313 enjoying it!" Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley, - the adage is a trifle musty; praise from Sir Charles Grandison may be grander still; but the praise lavished by Sir Charles on Lady Grandison must be plus ultra,or ne plus. Dr. Johnson was delighted when Boswell repeated to him what Orme, the historian of Hindostan, had said of him-how Orme loved better to hear him talk than anybody else, whatever the subject, etc. Because the praise came from a man so respected, it was of high account with the great man praised. And we may be sure that Boswell repeated the eulogy all the more eagerly, that a week before he had sensibly gratified his big friend by telling him what Dunning had just said,— "One is always willing to listen to Dr. Johnson.” “That is a great deal from you, sir," had been Boswell's remark to Dunning; and Johnson now agreed, "Yes, sir, a great deal indeed. Here is a man willing to listen, to whom the world is listening all the rest of the year." And when Boswell hoped and believed it to be right to tell one man of such a handsome thing, said of him by another, as tending to increase benevolence,—“ Undoubtedly it is right, sir," was the doctor's decisive reply. To some natures-not the more vulgar-no praise is nearly so dear as that which comes from lips endeared by relationship or friendship. Johnson related to Boswell, "with amiable fondness," he was ever tender to Jetty-the story of his wife's gratified pride in The Rambler, and his in hers. Distant praise, from whatever quarter, his faithful biographer reflects, is not so delightful as that of a beloved and esteemed wife: "Her approbation may be said to come home to his bosom;' and being so near, its effect is most sensible and permanent." We find Washington Irving in his fortieth year writing to his sister, Mrs. Paris, "how heartfelt is my gratification at finding you and my dear sister Sally 314 'FAITHFUL ARE THE WOUNDS expressing a pride in what I have done, and in what others say of me. Believe me, my dear sister, the fondest wish of my heart will be gratified if I can enjoy the affection of my relatives while living, and leave a name that may be cherished by the family when my poor wandering life is at an end." Pretty is the picture in Longfellow's New England hexameters, of Priscilla the spinner, rejoicing in the good word of John Alden— "Straight uprose from her wheel the beautiful Puritan maiden, Pleased with the praise of her thrift from him whose praise was the sweetest." Oh! music of music,-so the author of Christie Johnstone apostrophizes praise from eloquent lips, and those lips, the lips we love. The best of our resolutions, writes Henry Mackenzie, are bettered by a consciousness of the suffrage of good men in their favour; and the reward is still higher when that suffrage is from those we love. XXIX. FRIENDLY WOUNDS. PROVERBS xxvii. 6. HE wounds wherewith one has been wounded in THE the house of one's friends, are the cruellest of all, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, and of soul and spirit; for a spirit so wounded who can bear? But then the friends in such a case are false friends. Let the friend but be a true one,-loyal, single-minded, single-hearted, simply sincere,—and then "faithful are the wounds of a friend." A man that is a friend must show himself friendly, and even in wounding he can do so. He must be just the reverse of the satirist Atticus, "Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike." |