The Man of Feeling

HENRY MACKENZIE, the son of an Edinburgh physician, was born in August, 1745. After education in the University of Edinburgh he went to London in 1765, at the age of twenty, for law studies, returned to Edinburgh, and became Crown Attorney in the Scottish Court of Exchequer. When Mackenzie was in London, Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy” was in course of publication. The first two volumes had appeared in 1759, and the ninth appeared in 1767, followed in 1768, the year of Sterne’s death, by “The Sentimental Journey.” Young Mackenzie had a strong bent towards literature, and while studying law in London, he read Sterne, and falling in with the tone of sentiment which Sterne himself caught from the spirit of the time and the example of Rousseau, he wrote “The Man of Feeling.” This book was published, without author’s name, in 1771. It was so popular that a young clergyman made a copy of it popular with imagined passages of erasure and correction, on the strength of which he claimed to be its author, and obliged Henry Mackenzie to declare himself. In 1773 Mackenzie published a second novel, “The Man of the World,” and in 1777 a third, “Julia de Roubigné.” An essay-reading society in Edinburgh, of which he was a leader, started in January, 1779, a weekly paper called The Mirror, which he edited until May, 1780. Its writers afterwards joined in producing The Lounger, which lasted from February, 1785, to January, 1787. Henry Mackenzie contributed forty-two papers to The Mirror and fifty-seven to The Lounger. When the Royal Society of Edinburgh was founded Henry Mackenzie was active as one of its first members. He was also one of the founders of the Highland Society.

Although his “Man of Feeling” was a serious reflection of the false sentiment of the Revolution, Mackenzie joined afterwards in writing tracts to dissuade the people from faith in the doctrines of the Revolutionists. Mackenzie wrote also a tragedy, “The Prince of Tunis,” which was acted with success at Edinburgh, and a comedy, “The White Hypocrite,” which was acted once only at Covent garden. He died at the age of eighty-six, on the 13th June, 1831, having for many years been regarded as an elder friend of their own craft by the men of letters who in his days gave dignity to Edinburgh society, and caused the town to be called the Modern Athens.

A man of refined taste, who caught the tone of the French sentiment of his time, has, of course, pleased French critics, and has been translated into French. “The Man of Feeling” begins with imitation of Sterne, and proceeds in due course through so many tears that it is hardly to be called a dry book. As guide to persons of a calculating disposition who may read these pages I append an index to the Tears shed in “The Man of Feeling.”

INDEX TO TEARS.

(Chokings, &c., not counted.)

PAGE “Odds but should have wept” xiii Tear, given, “cordial drop” repeated 17 ,, like Cestus of Cytherea 26 ,, one on a cheek 30 “I will not weep” 31 Tears add energy to benediction 31 ,, tribute of some 52 „ blessings on 52 I would weep too 52 Not an unmoistened eye 53 Do you weep again? 53 Hand bathed with tears 53 Tears, burst into 54 „ sobbing and shedding 74 ,, burst into 75 ,, virtue in these 75 „ he wept at the recollection of her 80 ,, glister of new-washed 81 Sweet girl (here she wept) 94 I could only weep 95 Tears, saw his 97 ,, burst into 99 „ wrung from the heart 99 ,, feet bathed with 100 ,, mingled, i.e., his with hers 100 „ voice lost in 108 Eye met with a tear 108 Tear stood in eye 127 Tears, face bathed with 130 Dropped one tear, no more 131 Tears, press-gang could scarce keep from 136 Big drops wetted gray beard 137 Tears, shower of 138 ,, scarce forced—blubbered like a boy 139 Moistened eye 141 Tears choked utterance 144 I have wept many a time 144 Girl wept, brother sobbed 145 Harley kissed off her tears as they flowed, and wept between 145 every kiss Tears flowing down cheeks 148 ,, gushed afresh 148 Beamy moisture 154 A tear dropped 165 Tear in her eye, the sick man kissed it off in its bud, 176 smiling through the dimness of his own Hand wet by tear just fallen 185 Tears flowing without control 187 Cheek wiped (at the end of the last chapter) 189