 | Ellie, or, The human comedy |  |
INTRODUCTORY.
Perhaps a few words upon the threshold of this book
will be of advantage to the reader, the author, and the
story itself. The peculiar character of the volume, indeed,
almost calls for this explanatory introduction,
dealing, as it does, in the fortunes of many personages,
drawn with the utmost freedom, and made to play their
imaginary parts upon a domestic theatre, with which
many of its readers—if it have such—are so perfectly
familiar. The author wishes, then, to say upon the
threshold, and with entire sincerity, that no character in
this volume is intended to satirize any real personage,
living or dead. He would be sorry to think that any one
could believe him capable of anything so unamiable and
unjustifiable—and, perhaps, this disclaimer is wholly
unnecessary. It will not be attributed, by those who
know the writer, to any desire to attract local attention,
or excite interest in his work. The book must stand on
its own merits, and he would not, if he could, have it
otherwise. If there be no truth or value in its pages, it
will fall and become extinct, as it should. If on the
contrary, it possesses any truth, it will live, and that in
spite of everything, and without any assistance.
A few words in relation to the title and character of
formerly, a representation of human life—and in the
“Human Comedy,” the writer's aim has been to paint
life as it is—men as they are—human beings as they
speak and act when moved by those diverse and conflicting
passions and emotions which are the common inheritance
of humanity. It has thus happened that the work
contains—or was intended to contain—types, so to speak,
of human life: representing, each, different classes, and
with an underlying philosophy in their careers, which the
author trusts is quite pure and genuine in its presentation.
In Doctor Fossyl he has tried to depict a character
hardened by contact with material dogmas, and driven to
scepticism by subjecting spiritual things to tests purely
rational;—in Mr. Fantish a young man with a nature
originally pure, yielding to vice from the pressure of
powerful inducements;—in Miss Incledon, the woman
too weak to resist the glittering temptations of the
world, and entangling herself in a web dangerous and
terrible;—and in Captain Tarnish, the adventurer, without
courage as without conscience, a true type of that
class of individuals who float on the waves of society, as
scum does on the surface of a stream. These characters,
it may be said, are not healthful or agreeable companions
for the reader, and that is very true; but they exist.
They would never had been drawn, had not their antidotes,
so to speak, existed too. The writer trusts that
Mr. Sansoucy will counteract Mr. Fantish and his friend,
the Captain—Mr. Incledon, Doctor Fossyl—Miss Incledon
he quite neutralized by Aurelia,—while Monsieur
Heartsease; and Lucia, the poor flower of another clime,
to her friend Wide-Awake. To end this summary, which
has already extended too far—in the sketch of Ellie, the
writer has tried to show how a pure spirit, even though it
be in the bosom of a child, will run through the variegated
woof of that life which surrounds it, like a thread of pure
gold, and that all who come in contact with it will carry
away something to elevate and purify them, and make
them better. It was in delineating this child—poorly
and feebly as it is done—that the writer experienced his
greatest pleasure; and he can only regret his want of
ability to represent adequately the pure loveliness of the
journalist's little friend.
Briefly to sum up everything then for the kind reader,
detained already much too long—the chief aim of this
book has been to show the beauty and loveliness of
kindness—the reward which charity not seldom, even in
this world, reaps; the influence of purity and self-sacrifice,
even when they are exemplified in the character
and actions of a child—finally, the supreme truth which
underlies all true philosophy, that human nature in its
worst manifestations, and under its most repulsive forms,
does never, and can never lose wholly the good impulses
given to it by God. By failure or success in these particulars,
would the writer have his work judged and
tested. If it teaches, however feebly, the sweetness and
nobility of love, and the perennial beauty of goodness
and charity, the hours dedicated to it will not have been
thrown away. Beyond this he had scarcely the right to
undertaking of Art to search everywhere for these noble
lessons and pictures, and to place them as clearly as
possible before the eyes of the world—so the right of the
artist to pray for a kind consideration of his performance,
and due charity for its faults, will not be denied, or called
in question. If this book excites simple emotions of pity
and kindness in the breasts even of children, the writer
will be abundantly satisfied. He has much faith in such
a criticism, and is not unwilling to subject his work to
such youthful critics, or those who judge with like impartiality—certain
if there is anything truthful and sincere
in the volume, it will not fail to be justly appreciated.
| Ellie, or, The human comedy | |