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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1841
Sydney Smith to Georgiana Vernon Harcourt [Malcolm], September 1838
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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Combe Florey, September, 1841.
My dear Georgiana,

There is something awful and mysterious in the curled cress-seed you sent me. Some of it will not come up at all; other seeds put on the form of all sorts of plants, and will in time be oaks and elm-trees. We wait the result in patience, and you shall hear it.

There is an end of all earthly Whiggism, and that unfortunate class of men are getting into holes and corners as fast as possible. Some are taking orders,
452MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
some are going to the Continent, some to America, some going over to Peel, some to Jerusalem. I think —— very likely to marry a Circassian, a large convex lady, filling up great space morally and physically. He is an ambitious man, though he looks as if his brethren had just sold him to the Ishmaelite merchants.

Mr. —— seems to be the most important man north of the Humber. How can it be otherwise, dear Georgiana, with such felicities in the pulpit as “the brilliant reptile’s polished fang”? Massillon has nothing equal to this.

We have had a great deal of company. Of all the saints, I hate La Trappe the most: I believe he has been canonized. I wrote to W——, at Plymouth, conceiving him to be among the philosophers, of course, and not believing that an acid and an alkali would combine without him. Having received no answer from him, I imagined he had either quitted the world or the Established Church; or that he was composing a pamphlet against Dr. Simon Magus the ——. My kind regards to him.

I am delighted to hear of the health and activity of the Archbishop. Present to him, if you please, my homage. Your affectionate friend,

Sydney Smith.