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Objectionable Passages in Prose Works.
In each of these admirable works there are some exceptions against the generally correct taste and sound judgment of the author.
In "Romance and Reality," the ridiculous capture of Lady Mandeville and Emily, by Signor Guilio, their ci-devant hair-dresser, is an incident too ludicrous for admission into aught beside broad comedy. It jars upon our feelings as a dereliction from the principles of true taste.
In "Francesca Carrara," the confusion of Francis, with Robert Evelyn, in consequence of their striking resemblance, is another error of judgment; especially of woman's judgment. If all the world beside had been deceived, Francesca ought not to have mistaken her lover. All the thousand minute peculiarities of character, known only by those who are to each other as their own soul, ought to have been sufficient evidence against the fancied identity. It is not a valid excuse for this solecism to urge that Francesca was conscious of a great change in her lover, and of a corresponding change in her own feelings; on no ground can we admit the possibility of a woman ever making such a mistake. The plea, that, had this error been expunged, the whole texture of the work must have been altered, was, perhaps, considered by the author as a sufficient reason for its sufferance; we wish, however, it had been otherwise.
In "Ethel Churchill," the fault proceeds from a yet deeper error of judgment, and occurs in the history of Lady Marchmont. That fearful history, the moral delinquency of whose close, the writer could only shadow forth by the striking supposition,—
